Troye Sivan’s ‘Party’ Has Very Few Lyrics and Absolutely No Budget Restraint

Troye Sivan is back with “Party”, following “She’s the Best”, whose video threw Nicole Kidman and Sasha Colby into a gloriously drag-soaked spectacle and somehow made the pairing feel completely normal.

Lyrically, we are not in great works of literature territory.

Sivan opens with “Party in the park, party in the bush / Party under the bridge”, before taking us through an increasingly comprehensive directory of places where one might conceivably have a party. Madonna’s “Music” makes an appearance along the way, before we’re back to partying in the club, partying in the house and presumably anywhere else with enough floor space.

By the end I was fully expecting party in the church, party at the dentist, party at the funeral.

Had they actually been there, nobody would have blinked.

Melodically, it’s probably not something I’ll be putting on in the car. But with its thumping dance beat and deliberately hypnotic repetition, “Party” clearly belongs somewhere much sweatier. Expect this one to get plenty of mileage while twinks party in the club.

And then you watch the video and suddenly understand where the lyrical creative budget went.

Directed by Gordon von Steiner, who also directed Rush, the video is essentially Medieval Rush with substantially better tailoring. Sivan rides into battle in full armour, Sir Ian McKellen provides the sort of Gandalf narration we weren’t expecting, and what follows is an enormous castle bacchanal of dancing, flirting, feasting and people who appear to have discovered Grindr several centuries early. It was filmed at Berkeley Castle in England and looks spectacular.

There’s armour. There are swords. There are enormous banquet tables. There are beautiful men behaving badly.

Suddenly “party in the bush” feels less like a lyric and more like a production note.

As a song, “Party” is basically a beat, a Madonna sample and Troye Sivan repeatedly informing us that parties can occur in multiple locations. As a video, however, it is four minutes of gloriously expensive queer nonsense.

But I guess if you’re going to say “party” this many times, the least you can do is have Ian McKellen announce it.