Genre- pop
Note: I reviewed the standard edition, as I do with reviews. The deluxe is what was pushed mostly and seems to be how Halsey planned it out to go, but I have to review the standard, just because it's the standard. The deluxe is what I recommend buying though, it's got a few more songs and the existing songs are swapped around a little.
Halsey is in an odd state of being ridiculously famous, and yet no one has ever heard of her. She's insanely popular in some places, and almost nonexistent in others. I saw her this year in an arena opening (as the first act on a 3 act bill) for Imagine Dragons and Metric, and yet, judging by the sheer volume and adoration of the comments on her Instagram posts (mostly from people who, very creepily, like to call her "mom", often in all caps and with repeated letters), she could easily fill a good sized venue anywhere in the country. Interestingly, the split of popularity tends to be on the pop side, the VMA side. I say this is interesting because (along with twenty one pilots of artists from that scene), she's really good. Like, really good. The control she has over her voice is absolutely insane. The songwriting is good, and the voice is incredible. Her 5-song EP from last year, "Room 93" contains all high quality songs, one of which made it on to "Badlands" ("Ghost"), with another ("Hurricane") on the deluxe version, and another of which did not, but is my personal favorite ("Empty Gold").
On "Badlands", she sounds mostly the same as on "Room 93", which is understandable considering they came out less than a year apart and feature a couple of the same songs. It's also fine, since an extended "Room 93" is something people have been waiting for ever since the EP came out. The opening track, "Castle", is one that was not available as a recording before the album's release, but one Halsey has been playing live for a while (including the show I saw, where she opened with it). It has a powerful hook, and gets stuck in your head. It also displays the forcefulness in her voice, low, powerful, completely under control at all times. It moves into two of the pre album releases, lead single "Hold Me Down" and fan favorite "New Americana". "Hold Me Down" is one of my favorites from the album, with a hook slightly borrowed from Panic! At the Disco's "Miss Jackson", but it redeems through pure force, backed with lyrics that paint a vaguely creepy picture. We move on to lyrics of a less… subtle nature on "New Americana". The music is the best it's been on the album, her voice is on point, the chorus is ridiculously catchy, and the song absolutely destroys live. The lyrics leave something to be desired ("we are the new americana, high on legal marijuana". Bonus points for being topical, I guess.) but I've always cared far more about the music, with lyrics as a far secondary concern.
"Drive" introduces itself with an absolutely gorgeous synth line, that continues through beautiful vocal melodies, and a nice, if slightly jarring acoustic guitar joining in the chorus. I only say jarring, because as far as I can tell, it's the only traditional instrumentation found anywhere on the album. It's all synths and drum machines, which only warrants mention because of how much that goes against everything I usually listen to, which is mostly metal (which, admittedly, does use a drum machine occasionally, looking at Meshuggah) and harder rock. And yet, I love it. "Roman Holiday" is a nice ballad, and "Colors" is fantastic, with the exception of the spoken word bridge, which is grating, and the clunky lyrics don't help it. Forcing *way* too many colors in there, even for a song called "Colors".
"Colors" is followed up by two solid tracks, "Coming Down", a slow ballad, and "Haunting" which has a memorable autotune opening. After those? "Control", easily one of the better songs on the album. Halsey kind of sounds like an über angry, terrifying, less immediate Taylor Swift here. This is followed by "Young God", which is frankly incredibly boring. Other than the shock value of dropping the f-bomb out of nowhere, nothing interesting comes out of the song. The album closes out with "Ghost", which is short, sweet, and one of the most beautiful songs of the year. It hits all the right places and brings the album to a smooth landing.
Overall, the record isn't a masterpiece, but it's an extremely solid debut and shows a lot of promise for future releases from Halsey, who I'm predicting to easily be an A-list famous star by the release of her next album, she's on the rise and she is not coming down. At least hopefully she'll be headlining over Metric.
Overall score: 76/100
Two songs from the Goodlands: "Control" and "Ghost"
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