Halsey is a musical journeywoman.
Her first journey saw her take her burgeoning audience into Room 93 during fall of 2014 for her debut EP. Come August 2015, she checked her audience out of Room 93 and led them directly into the Badlands, but not without the Room’s mementos. (She put songs from the former onto the latter) Two years later, Halsey would take her fans with her to “fair Verona” the setting of her Romeo & Juliet-inspired sophomore effort, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. That was June 2017. It’s January 2020 now, and Halsey’s ready to take us to a new location.
The location? Halsey’s own psyche.
Entitled Manic, Halsey’s third studio album was initially teased in May of 2019 when she released her pop rock single “Nightmare,” an unapologetic rallying cry against a patriarchal society which has troubled Halsey and millions, if not billions of other women around the globe. Hell hath no fury like a New Jersey suburbanite scorned. Initially teased as the lead single for the album, “Nightmare” wound up removed from the tracklist entirely, for reasons which aren’t apparent. We can only speculate on what the album would’ve sounded like had it remained, however the end result suggests that a different direction could’ve worked to its detriment versus its benefit. Here’s why Manic is Halsey’s bid for album of the year.
The album’s title, Manic, refers to Halsey’s mental state, being symptomatic of her bipolar disorder, however these feelings of hers are almost certainly compounded by her endometriosis diagnosis, which Halsey alludes to in the album.
The opening track, however, is not a Halsey song. It is an “Ashley” song; named for Halsey’s real name; an anagram of her stage name. Throughout her time as an angsty, gender-bending alt pop musician, Halsey has taken center stage, figuratively and literally, upstaging Ashley Frangipane to show off the version of herself she wants the world to see. On this occasion, however, she’s letting Ashley into the limelight for a change, indicative of the whole album’s direction right from the outset. The verses are a slow buildup, before the choruses comes crashing through; a staple of many a Halsey song.
The song closes out with a film quote from the Kate Winslet-led Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, leading into the album’s next song, “clementine”, an allusion to Winslet’s character in the film.
“I’m just a fucked-up girl looking for her own peace of mind. Don’t assign me yours.”
My best description of “Clementine” is that it sounds like what a fan-made YouTube video of Winslet’s character would look like, but with Halsey providing an original song over the clips of “Clementine.” There is an official video of the song, however, which features Ashley and her brother, Sevian, performing a contemporary dance synced to the song in aquarium corridors. Speaking of Ashley, the song represents a push-and-pull dynamic between herself and Halsey; Ashley attempts to make her voice heard during the chorus as she shrieks the lyrics “I don’t need anyone! I just need everyone and then some” beneath Halsey’s calm crooning of the same lyrics, symbolizing Halsey’s desperation to give Ashley a voice amidst the attention she gets when she’s Halsey. The push and pull seems to continue right to the bridge, where Halsey knows she has to choose either herself or Ashley, but not both, culminating in the kicker of a lyric, “my heart still has a suitcase, but I just can’t take it through”.
The song’s debut single, “Graveyard”, released in September, is a classic Halsey single, complete with brooding instrumental, however the guitar plucking is certainly a welcome change to the soundscape of the Tumblr-homegrown New Jersey native, which really complements the attached music video starring Euphoria actress Sydney Sweeney, evoking similarities to Halsey’s music video for her single “Ghost”, except the Tokyo setting is replaced with that of a theme park.
“You Should Be Sad”, the latest single as of this review, is the final kiss-off to G-Eazy with scathing lyrics, shaping itself as the furious, spiteful follow-up to the melancholy, pleading “Without Me”. Perhaps the most prominent lyric of this country-tinged song is “You can’t love nothing unless there’s something in it for you” as a true indicator of the contempt she feels towards her ex-lover.
“Forever… (Is a Long Time)” sees Ashley return to the microphone, delivering the same “diary entry in audio file” music which defined Badlands, and as if the woman read my mind, she refers to “Colors” on the penultimate verse.
“Dominic’s Interlude” is a break from Halsey’s identity crisis, allowing fellow alternative musician and friend Dominic Fike to cut a demo to offer the listener respite from Halsey’s thoughts. In that sense, it’s almost like Dominic is therapizing Ashley on how to deal with her mania and the people in her life who exacerbate it.
The interlude blends seamlessly into the final song on what I consider the album’s first act, seeing as how it’s the last song on Side A of my vinyl. “I HATE EVERYBODY” is a calm, flute/xylophone driven tune. The song is the end of what Halsey describes as a “trio” on this album, preceded by “Forever” and the first interlude. In it, Halsey realizes how pointless the facade of her shelly exterior is, the whole song essentially leading up to the lyric “I just keep saying I hate everybody, but maybe I, maybe I don’t”. This is one of my personal favorite Halsey deep cuts.
The warm and cheery tone quickly goes out the window upon the beginning of the vinyl’s B side. A dial tone turns into a warped, distorted screech for about 10 seconds, before “3am” officially starts, and it does not stop. Anyone who’s spent a day’s wee hours wasting themselves at a club in desperation of another’s attention can easily relate to the lyrics here. What isn’t as relatable is receiving a voicemail from one John Mayer, offering his congratulations upon the success of Halsey’s radio-dominating single, which incidentally happens to be the next song on the album.
“Without Me”, the album’s centerpiece became the lead single when Halsey replaced “Nightmare” with it. Many fans were perplexed at this decision, and for good reason, if there was ever a song to follow up 3am, the high-octane, unapologetic “Nightmare” seemed the more sensible decision than the dour, moody, pleading “Without Me”. It still fits the album, but perhaps not as snugly as “Nightmare”. That said, the following song comes as less of an abruption in precession of “Without Me” compared to “Nightmare”.
It’s at this point in the album where the vengeful, contempt-filled songs take a backseat as Halsey delves into “Finally // Beautiful Stranger”, a slow, sobering guitar-driven tune which is the closest Halsey has ever sounded to a conventional “silly love song” as it were, proving once again her versatility when it comes to musical styles and lyrical tones. The sound is not unlike that of a Kacey Musgraves or even NFR-style Lana tune.
The tone changes from the otherwise welcoming previous track to “Alanis’ interlude”, serving as a duet between the songstress and ’90s superstar Alanis Morrissette, this time taking the opportunity to exonerate the women she’s loved and lost, even shouting out another guitar-toting music star in the form of the previously appearing John Mayer, while still very much carrying the tone of being “over it all”.
“Killing Boys” lets you know right from the off that Halsey’s ready to launch into another spite-filled venting session about the men who scorned her, sampling a dialogue clip from the 2009 horror cult classic Jennifer’s Body between Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. This song to me is the album’s most reminiscent song to hopeless fountain kingdom, particularly “Eyes Closed”. The tone, however, is not as welcoming, to say the least. I dread whichever Ferrari owner’s ex-lover hears this.
“SUGA’S Interlude” could just as well work as a BTS album track on its own with Halsey as the feature rather than the other way around, as this track’s inclusion can be explained as a thank-you note to all the BTS fans who embraced Halsey and her musicianship following the two acts’ megahit collab, “Boy With Luv”, ruling the airwaves throughout spring and summer 2019.
The next song is perhaps the most personal and heavy-handed song Halsey has ever recorded. She’s made her struggles with endometriosis a central aspect of her identity, compounded with the miscarriage she suffered in 2015. She’s never been more ready for motherhood, which she makes very evident on “More”, as if to indicate to her unborn child that she’s willing to be a mother when her reproductive system is equally as willing to cooperate.
“Still Learning” is when the album admittedly begins to taper off somewhat, the song set to a dancehall beat explaining how Halsey, try as she might, is doing her best to place her own needs first and practice self-love before letting another love her, which, after hearing this whole album and knowing her story, is not the least bit surprising. In a way, however, the comedown is necessary in preparation for the LP’s conclusory track.
Remember earlier how I mentioned “diary entry in audio format”? “929” sounds word-for-word exactly like Halsey just copied and pasted a page from her diary onto a lyric sheet and just started speak-singing nonstop from it. “929” represents what I consider to be a musical stream of consciousness, as she delves into fan experiences, her relationships with her friends and family,
and what the future holds for her, deeming herself to be a “fucking liar” in the process. Listen to the whole song to find out why.
As a whole, Manic achieves what Halsey set out to do; it showcases the parts of her which are desperate, anxious and vengeful, whilst also showing the parts of her which appear composed, loving, compassionate and welcoming. Admittedly, the overall product isn’t perfect, but Halsey isn’t trying to make a perfect album; she’s attempting to showcase her day-to-day thought process as a sufferer of chronic physical and mental illness, relying on friends and loved ones to help overcome hardships from her superstardom, her past relationships, and sometimes both. And all the pieces fit together, albeit not very neatly, but well enough that the album provides for a cohesive and wellpaced listening experience, one which hardcore Halsey fans like me will lovingly adore. There is also enough variety throughout “Manic” to provide at least one song that any casual music fan will enjoy.
Overall, Manic is a sensational record and is an early hat in the ring for Album of the Year in my opinion.
8/10
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