Track Review: Troye Sivan, ‘Rush’

It’s been five years since Troye Sivan released Bloom, which means that it’s basically been a decade and a half since his last formal entry into the contemporary pop scene. In the time since his sophomore record, Troye joined forces with Charli XCX for the sublime “1999,” picked up a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song (“Revelation” from Boy Erased), and dropped the terrific In A Dream EP.

Today (July 14), the YouTube star turned pop savant unleashed “Rush,” a euphoria-drunk ode to queer sex and poppers that combines the homoerotic sweat of feverish frat boy chants with the pounding rhythm of a ‘90s evoking piano-house beat. “Rush” is relentless. Each section of the song builds on the next, inching ever closer to the orgasmic release that Troye and the horny background voices seek. When his honeyed falsetto coos “It's so good, it's so good,” he offers a simultaneous callback to Donna Summer’s eternal “I Feel Love” and a juxtaposition to the husky lower register in which the aforementioned chants reside.

“Rush” is sweat. It is heat. “Rush” is the tornado of carnal energy that overtakes you on the dancefloor, driving you to make decisions that may not make logical sense, but instead, allow you to satisfy the most primal and self-serving desires of the human experience. Although the song lacks a proper bridge and final chorus to truly reach that explosive moment of release that it teases, “Rush” is Troye Sivan’s most instantly impressive single yet.

Vote for Troye Sivan and Latto at the 2023 Bulletin Awards.

Score: 79