Troye Sivan - In A Dream EP

We've all got that mate - you know the one - pint in hand, boorish expression on their face, fighting some self-imagined war against 'pop'. But pop, Dear Reader, is not the anodyne, plastic machine as Robbie Real Music would have you believe. Pop is art.

Take Troye Sivan's new release - an exploration of emotions, it's a showcase of one of the most inventive and vital minds pushing the creative edges of mainstream culture.

Opener 'Take Yourself Home' starts as a delicate vibe, and ends with a grinding growl; 'Easy' shimmers through the heat haze - melancholy and raw. 'could cry just thinkin about you' provides a more organic, lo-fi texture, but it's closer and title-track 'IN A DREAM' that really thumps through - bright, boppy and defiant.

That's pop at it's very best.

Stephen Ackroyd