''Blue Neighbourhood'' is the debut studio album by Australian singer and songwriter

Troye Sivan Troye Sivan Mellet ( ; born 5 June 1995) is an Australian singer-songwriter, actor and YouTuber. After gaining popularity as a singer on YouTube and in Australian talent competitions, Sivan signed with EMI Australia in 2013 and released his thi ...

. It was released internationally on 4 December 2015 via

EMI Music Australia EMI Recorded Music Australia Pty Ltd (called EMI Music Australia until May 2013) is an Australian imprint of Universal Music Australia, formerly a subsidiary label of EMI Recordings Ltd and, between 1979 and 1996, that of Thorn EMI. It is Austral ...

and Capitol Records America. The album is preceded by Sivan's fourth

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

Wild Wild, wild, wilds or wild may refer to: Common meanings * Wild animal * Wilderness, a wild natural environment * Wildness, the quality of being wild or untamed Art, media and entertainment Film and television * ''Wild'' (2014 film), a 2014 A ...

'', which served as a 6-song opening installment to ''Blue Neighbourhood''. The album has generated the singles "

", "

Youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. You ...

", "

Talk Me Down "Talk Me Down" (stylized in all caps) is a song by Australian singer and songwriter Troye Sivan from his debut studio album ''Blue Neighbourhood'' (2015). It was written by Sivan, Bram Inscore, Brett McLaughlin, Allie X, and Emile Haynie, and was ...

" and "

Heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

". "Wild" was ultimately remixed and re-released as a single with

Alessia Cara Alessia Caracciolo (born July 11, 1996), known professionally as Alessia Cara (), is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Born in Mississauga, Ontario, to Italian Canadian parents, she began posting covers of songs on YouTube at age 13. After uploadi ...

Release and promotion

On 13 October 2015, Sivan revealed that ''

'' served as an opening introduction to the album. Pre-orders for the album opened on 15 October 2015, with the album reaching No. 1 within hours on the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

in ten countries, including the United States. "

" was included as a promotional single to those who pre-ordered the album and was the only previously unreleased song made available before release. Those who had already purchased ''Wild'' received a discount to purchase ''Blue Neighbourhood''. Sivan also launched merchandise bundles on his site, selling jumpers with the album logo, candles scented to match the mood of his songs, CDs, vinyl, posters, digital downloads, bags, and notebooks. On 22 May, Sivan performed at the

2016 Billboard Music Awards The 2016 ''Billboard'' Music Awards ceremony was held on May 22, 2016, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, the first nationally televised event to originate from that venue. It aired live on ABC with hosts Ludacris and Ciara. The nomin ...

. On 28 August, Sivan performed at the

pre-show A pre-game, pregame, or pre-match show is a television or radio presentation that occurs immediately before the live broadcast of a major sporting event. They typically feature previews and analysis relating to upcoming games (either a larger fixt ...

of the

2016 MTV Video Music Awards The 2016 MTV Video Music Awards were held on Sunday night, August 28, 2016 at 9:00–11:54pm EDT at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. Adele's "Hello" was the most nominated video with seven categories. This marked the 33rd edition of the live b ...

. Sivan embarked on two concert tours to promote the album: the first is the

Blue Neighbourhood Tour The Blue Neighbourhood Tour was the second concert tour by Australian recording artist Troye Sivan, in support of his debut studio album ''Blue Neighbourhood'' (2015). Background On 23 November 2015, two weeks before the release of Sivan's debut ...

and later the Suburbia Tour.

Composition

''Blue Neighbourhood'' has been described to be an

electropop Electropop is a hybrid music genre combining elements of electronic and pop genres. Writer Hollin Jones has described it as a variant of synth-pop with heavy emphasis on its electronic sound. The genre was developed in the 1980s and saw a re ...

, gloom-pop, and

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

record with

EDM EDM or E-DM may refer to: Music * Electronic dance music * Early Day Miners, American band Science and technology * Electric dipole moment * Electrical discharge machining * Electronic distance measurement *Entry, Descent, and landing demonstrat ...

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

, electro, and R&B elements. Lyrical themes within the record include Sivan's experiences with love, youth, yearning, heartbreak, and affirmation. Critics have also compared the record to other musicians like

Lorde Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), known professionally as Lorde ( ), is a New Zealand singer-songwriter. Taking inspiration from aristocracy for her stage name, she is known for her unconventional musical styles and i ...

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her vivid songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and wide media coverage. Bor ...

Sam Smith Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. After rising to prominence in October 2012 by featuring on Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch", which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, they ...

Macklemore Benjamin Hammond Haggerty (born June 19, 1983), better known by his stage name Macklemore ( ; (formerly Professor Macklemore), is an American rapper and songwriter. A native of Seattle, Washington, he has collaborated with producer Ryan Lewi ...

, and

Adele Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a reco ...

Singles

", originally released as the

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

from Sivan's extended play of the same name, was issued a remixed version featuring Canadian singer-songwriter

and was later released as the fourth single from the album on 23 June 2016. Following its release, Sivan re-released ''Blue Neighbourhood'' on iTunes, replacing "Wild (XXYYXX remix)" with the remixed version featuring Cara on the deluxe edition and adding it to the standard version as the last track. In addition, a Korean Special Edition of the album was released, featuring the ''TRXYE'' extended play tracks, the Blue Neighbourhood music video trilogy and the music video for "Youth". "

" was released as the second single from the album. The song premiered exclusively on 12 November on Shazam Top 20 at 7PM

AEST Australia uses three main time zones: Australian Western Standard Time (AWST; UTC+08:00), Australian Central Standard Time (ACST; UTC+09:30), and Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST; UTC+10:00). Time is regulated by the individual state gov ...

and was officially released worldwide after midnight in each country on 13 November. In early 2016, it reached the top 25 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, making it Sivan's most commercially successful single to date in North America. "

" was later confirmed to be the third single from the album, being released on 26 May 2016. On 17 October 2016, "

" featuring fellow Australian singer

Betty Who Jessica Anne Newham (born 5 October 1991), known by her stage name Betty Who, is an Australian musician, singer and songwriter. After independently releasing her debut single, " Somebody Loves You" (2012), and her debut extended play, ''The M ...

was released as the fifth single from the album. Sivan uploaded the audio for the song to his vevo channel on YouTube and performed a solo version of the song on ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was prod ...

'' the next day. The official music video for the song was set to be released on 20 January 2017 in order to coincide with the

inauguration of Donald Trump The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States marked the commencement of Donald Trump's term as president and Mike Pence as vice president. An estimated 300,000 to 600,000 people attended the public ceremony hel ...

, however, the video was released on Sivan's

Vevo Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, di ...

channel on 19 January, one day earlier than planned.

Music videos

Prior to the album's announcement, the same day the ''

'' EP came out, a music video trilogy labelled under the

umbrella term In linguistics, semantics, general semantics, and ontologies, hyponymy () is a semantic relation between a hyponym denoting a subtype and a hypernym or hyperonym (sometimes called umbrella term or blanket term) denoting a supertype. In other wor ...

''Blue Neighbourhood'' was confirmed. The trilogy follows the storyline of Sivan and his

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

al childhood friend and love interest (played by Australian model Matthew Eriksson), and the struggles their

same-sex relationship A same-sex relationship is a romantic or sexual relationship between people of the same sex. ''Same-sex marriage'' refers to the institutionalized recognition of such relationships in the form of a marriage; civil unions may exist in countries w ...

faces. The first two installments are for the songs "Wild" and "Fools" and both were released in September 2015. The last installment of the ''Blue Neighbourhood'' video trilogy is for "Talk Me Down" and was released on 20 October 2015. The video has an open ending, since it leaves the viewer with a shot of Sivan's love interest at the edge of a cliff and then cuts to a view of the sea. After the release of this installment, Sivan provided suicide prevention hotlines (for countries where they are available). In December 2015, Sivan shared some giveaways with his fans for a whole week until

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

through a website called ''8 Days of Givaways''. On 23 December 2015, the giveaway was a few black-and-white pictures from behind the scenes for the "Youth" music video. That music video was never released, and a new one was shot instead in early February 2016 and released on 24 February 2016. Sivan confirmed that he filmed a music video for "Wild" with

in late June 2016. On 19 January 2017, Sivan released a music video for "Heaven", however

was not seen in the music video, but her vocals were featured on the track.

Critical reception

The album received critical acclaim from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 80, based on 4 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

Everett True Everett True (born Jeremy Andrew Thackray on 21 April 1961) is an English music journalist and musician. He became interested in rock music after hearing The Residents, and formed a band with school friends. He has written and recorded as The ...

from ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the album five stars, commenting that "it is difficult to find fault with ''Blue Neighbourhood''" and praising Sivan for "capturing the sound of now so well". Neil Z. Yeung from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

praised Sivan's "sultry and effortless, wounded and breathless" voice as well as noting the album's themes of "heartbreak and affirmation" that make it "a sparkling, triumphant experience". Writing for ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'', Kenneth Partridge commented that "in lieu of originality, Sivan sells vulnerability" as well as comparing the album's instrumentation to those of

and

Bernard Zuel Bernard Zuel is an Australian music journalist. Zuel wrote for Fairfax Media newspapers ''The Age'' and ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' since 1992. He became their senior music writer and reviewer. Zuel is a judge of the Australian Music Prize a ...

from ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' described Sivan as having a "coffee-and-cream voice ..artfully caught between childhood and adulthood." Writers for ''

Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the Murdoch owned News Corp. The ''Herald S ...

'' praised Sivan's voice, calling it "fearless and honest in a way most pop stars aren't" as well as noting the openness of the album's lyrical content that does "not hyaway from pronouns like many before him." Jules Lefevre from ''

Rolling Stone Australia ''Rolling Stone'' Australia is the Australian edition of the United States' ''Rolling Stone'' magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture, published monthly. The Australian version of ''Rolling Stone'' was initially published in 197 ...

'' commenting that Sivan's vocals "

over Over may refer to: Places *Over, Cambridgeshire, England *Over, Cheshire, England *Over, South Gloucestershire, England * Over, Tewkesbury, near Gloucester, England ** Over Bridge *Over, Seevetal, Germany Music Albums * ''Over'' (album), by Pe ...

amid electronic production that manages to be densely intricate and helium light" and that he "delivers these quiet gems of young wisdom with enough humility so as to be endearing rather than precocious."

Accolades

Commercial performance

''Blue Neighbourhood'' debuted at number six in Australia and seven in the United States, selling 65,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to traditi ...

s (55,000 coming from pure album sales), becoming his third release to debut inside the top ten. In the United States that was his best sales week, despite having the lowest peak of all his albums and EPs.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

{{Authority control 2015 debut albums Albums produced by Alex Hope (songwriter) Albums produced by Emile Haynie Capitol Records albums Troye Sivan albums Universal Music Australia albums Universal Music Group albums