If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power - Halsey: Review
Halsey
is an American pop star who emerged in the second half of the 2010's to quickly become one of the defining pop voices of that era. After three records full of sonic elements and collaborations that you'd mostly expect from a pop artist, on If I Can't Have Love Halsey recruits Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, fresh off a Grammy win for the soundtrack to Pixar's Soul, to handle production on the entire record.
Review By Lav:
I've always been pretty middle of the road when it comes to Halsey. Their are plenty of Twitter stans and pop heads who worship Halsey as one of the great pop stars of modern music, but they've also amassed quite a bit of haters across just a few years of relevancy. While I wouldn't consider myself a Halsey fan they're nowhere near the most annoying voice in pop music alone and certainly not deserving of some of the hate. That being said I was pretty critical of Halsey's last record, the worst of their short career thus far. Thankfully the inclusion of Trent and Atticus on production had me genuinely excited for this record, and they proved me right. The highlight of this record is absolutely their production work as they push the album in unexpectedly bold directions and keep it instrumentally fresh and lively throughout. Unfortunately while this occasionally results in some surprising hits, there's an awkwardness that hangs over this entire record stemming from a very predictable truth, that Halsey does not belong over a lot of these instrumentals.
For the most obvious example of this awkwardness turn to Girl Is A Gun which features rapid fire drum hits that feel like they're right out of Nine Inch Nails With Teeth era. The only issue is that they absolutely swallow Halsey's voice throughout the entire track and while it makes for the occasional eerie moment, I wish it was more coherent. 1121 starts off in a slow manner that feels more like some recent Nine Inch Nails but once it erupts into the hook there are flashes of some of the corniest pop punk of the 2000's. The album handles these influences well at other points so I'm really not sure what happened here. Bells In Santa Fe on the other hand is primarily build with keys in a way that actually feels kind of expansive on the hook paired with Halsey's calls of "this is temporary". Though it has that memorable moment the incredibly boring progression and verses really don't translate for me.
Occasionally there are songs here that see Halsey falling short in ways I'm more accustomed to hearing on a Halsey project. The final two tracks The Lighthouse and Ya'aburnee are by far the least impactful on the entire album and I have a hard time recalling anything about them after numerous listens. Lilith has a steady hip hop beat that stands out on the record. Halsey's sweet vocals do have slightly more edge to them than usual but the confrontational lyricism isn't enough to make it feel like they belong over this beat. While I admire the instrumental the execution is awkward and the song itself is badly underwritten. Finally there's I am not a woman, I'm a god which on its own I have a pretty negative reaction to. The one way I can find some enjoyment in it is with its placement as the last notable song in the tracklist here where it feels like a celebratory nonbinary anthem rising out of the issues that the entire record spends tackling.
I was surprised to find some of the ballads and most instrumentally stark songs were also some of my favorites. Opening track The Tradition is a big rising piano ballad to kick the album off that features some vengeful lyrics and a clearly confrontational attitude from Halsey. It's a headstrong start thematically even though I'm not sure the instrumental conveys exactly what Trent and Halsey might think it does. Darling sounds like an above average Taylor Swift song and while it's a pretty standard sounding change of pace track for a pop album I think Halsey has the chops to pulls it off. Finally the best of the reserved tracks is Whisper which features a bold instrumental that is impactful despite it's distant approach. As it builds it feels totally omnipresent and Halsey's eerie reserved vocals pair perfectly with that rise and gets me every time I hear it.
Pop punk revivalism is a big deal right now and this record is no different. You Asked For This absolutely screams 2000's and while it does make me roll my eyes at first I have grown to like the edge it brings. The instrumental is absolutely killer with a rich array of blaring guitars and anthemic percussion backing up Halsey. Easier Than Lying is a somehow even more nostalgic track that sees Halsey flexing some vocal versatility with the near whispered verses and anthemic shouted hook. The instrumental has a sheer rush of excitement onto the chorus that makes it pop every time it comes back around. Finally there's Honey an interesting song about a relationship that is clearly troubled but still really enjoyable to Halsey which is a sentiment I see a lot of people being able to relate to. It grabs me right out of the gate thematically and with an upbeat exciting instrumental that isn't afraid to dial it back at the right moments it creates a compelling dramatic effect.
If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power is a pretty admirable next step for Halsey with risks taken that very few of their pop contemporaries would be willing or even aware enough to do. Unfortunately it doesn't always translate that well despite some great creativity being delivered by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. At the core of the records faults is just a lack of compelling songwriting on way too many tracks. For a pop record none of these tracks are hooky enough to last into next year and as something a bit more experimental it inconsistently delivers on compelling moments. It's certainly a big improvement over Halsey's last record and it wouldn't surprise me if they make another big leap on the next one. 5.5/10
This cover is very much my style as a photographer. Campy, fashionable and conceptual. I love a lot about this including the styling, image quality and colors, but there's something I can't put my finger on that throws me off. It may be that the composition seems a little forced or the lack of branding which I think it would've benefitted from. It almost seems like they started the shoot with the intentions to go all out and got scared and stopped 3/4 of the way through. It's still a striking image and my favorite of her past few covers. 7.5/10
For more pop check out my review of Lorde's Solar Power here
