The Good Side

"The Good Side" is a song by Australian singer and songwriter Troye Sivan. It was written by Sivan, Leland, Allie X, Bram Inscore, Jam City and Ariel Rechtshaid, with production handled by the latter three. The song was released through EMI Music Australia on 19 January 2018, as the second single from his second studio album, Bloom (2018). Background On 17 January 2018, Sivan announced the single and revealed its artwork on social media. Talking about the song to Zane Lowe on Beats 1, Sivan explained that the song is an open letter to an ex-boyfriend. He said that the song is "a little rough" and called it "one of the only sad songs on the album". He continued: "It's basically about a breakup that I went through a while ago. You know, in a breakup, I think just the sheer nature of it, is that someone is going to get it rough. And I happened to be on the good side of things — I got to go on tour, I got to go and see the world, I had this very therapeutic experience of singing songs about that breakup and watching people sing them back to me, and I met someone new fairly soon afterwards. It's sort of a letter to that person to express apologies and sympathy and if I could change this at all, I would've. So I'm hoping that this song, a couple years down the line, is going to serve as a cathartic experience for the both of us to be like, 'look, this is the way that things happened and whenever we're ready to move on, let's do that.'" Sivan wrote in a tweet that the song "means the world to [him]". He thanked co-writers of the song for "understanding the nuances and complexities of the moment and for helping bring it to life". Critical reception Upon release, the song received universal acclaim. Madeline Roth of MTV News called the song an "emotional guitar ballad" that is "punctuated by scintillating harps and late-arriving synths". She warned readers that it is "sure to put you deep in your feelings" as it "tells the story of a failed relationship in which Sivan got 'the good side' of the breakup". Ross McNeilage of the same publication called it "a stunning song of heartbreak and healing", naming it "the most acoustic thing Troye has ever released" and "his most cinematic song to date". He also wrote that it is "a song of two extremes in every sense", due to the presence of guitars in "his dreamy electro-synth universe".