We are revisiting some of our favourite records of 2023

He started dropping teasers for “Rush”, his queer-sexual-innuendo-laden lead single that takes its name from the gay party drug. Its lyricism doubles down on the comparison between sex and being under the influence: “I feel the rush / Addicted to your touch,” a chorus of voices chant in the chorus. It’s a sexy, effortlessly charismatic single that’s as daring as it is bold — another single “Got Me Started”, centering around an enigmatic hookup, operates the same way. If you mentally block out the out-of-place and dated sample, you can enjoy Troye singing about an infatuation, no matter who’s around: “Kinda miss usin’ my body / Fuck it up, just like this party did tonight.”

Troye previously described the album to NME as a “celebration of sex, dance, sweat, community, queerness, love and friendship,” and nowhere is this more clear than “One Of Your Girls”, a laid-back cut where he alters himself for a “straight-ish” guy he’s fallen for. “Give me a call if you ever get lonely / I’ll be like one of your girls or your homies,” he admits. It’s a smart, solid idea, but the cherry on top is its music video, where Troye dresses in drag and dances around the shirtless Ross Lynch. It’s visually striking, Troye looks stunning, and it feels like the the most provocative thing a male pop star has done in far too long.

“One Of Your Girls” is not shy in its eagerness to please its object, and this kind of gentle desperation appears other places on the album; over a house beat, “Honey” sings of a certain energy that can bring out the best in him (“I see love in every space / I see sex in every city, every town”); and “Silly” admits a need to seek out pleasure (“Baby, I’m a love junkie like that / I’m so silly like that”). The album’s bounciest song, “What’s The Time Where You Are?” seeks international connection despite time differences. “I’m right on top of this groove / But God, I wish it was you,” he sings.

It’s not all lust, parties, and sex: on “Can’t Go Back, Baby,” he reminisces on someone who left him in his past. “It breaks my heart to say / I can’t wait to live without you.” It’s an exercise in self-restraint, and, ultimately, reliance, as he lays in his bed at night alone. A still, suffocating moment comes with “Still Got It”, inspired by seeing someone after a long time away. “Was bound to happen, I suppose / But fuck me now, I really know / I still got it bad.” The instrumental is unwavering and the most simple on the album to highlight the lines’ devastation, a technique Samia also used for her song “Kill Her Freak Out.”

It might lack variety, as pretty much every song on the album centers around relationships, but dance and fun make for worthwhile subjects anyway. Something to Give Each Other isn’t only a solid pop album — it’s a smart, astute look at everything that makes pop culture so exciting and gives into the hedonistic messiness it permits.