She told Fader:ĥ Seconds of Summer, Beyonce, Taylor Swift Take Top Honors in Tumblr's 2016 Year-End Charts… Halsey, who is bisexual, has addressed how she felt how the video exposed many people’s distorted views of female-female relationships. Two months before the album dropped, she shared this music video, which finds her getting intimate with another woman. She eventually went with Astralwerks, which included “Ghost” on her 2014 debut EP Room 93, and eventually, on Badlands the following year. “Ghost” appears as the final track on Badlands, but it’s actually the genesis of Halsey’s stardom. It’s what came out of the New Jersey studio session encouraged by Li, a session she first hoped would make “a quick couple of hundred dollars writing yogurt commercials,” she told Billboard for her March 2016 cover story. Instead, she got this frosty electronic song… and a lot of calls from major label A&Rs (Republic, Atlantic, Island, RCA) shortly after she uploaded it to iTunes. The first song they recorded is actually the start of our five-song playlist for getting acquainted with Halsey… On one of her many trips into the city, she met Anthony Li (then a member of the Warped Tour band Action Item, now her co-manager) who encouraged her to record some original music, aside from the tongue-in-cheek Harry Styles and Taylor Swift parodies loved by her considerable Tumblr and YouTube followings. Born Ashley Frangipane, the New Jersey native had been creating, performing, and attracting followers long before she decided to move around the letters of her given first name and go by the moniker of a familiar stop on Brooklyn’s L Train. Album DescriptionBefore she was jamming with A-listers, a few IRL encounters and many, many interactions with her legion of online fans built up the Halsey we know today. See More Your browser does not support the audio element. Ultimately, it's all of Halsey's seemingly contradictory elements brought together that lend Badlands such a fascinating topography. There's also something angry, literate, and youthfully defiant about Badlands that brings to mind the sneer of Garbage's Shirley Manson. On 'New Americana,' their vocals double-tracked like the children's chorus on Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall,' they sing, 'We are the new Americana/High on legal marijuana/Raised on Biggie and Nirvana.' Interestingly, while their noir-ish, older-than-their-years image has drawn comparisons to contemporaries like Lana Del Rey and Lorde (and yes, there are similarities) musically, they have more in common with male-fronted acts like New York's X Ambassadors, merging dark, electronic indie with the rhythmic bump and lyrical flow of R&B. They also have a knack for singling out little generational touchstones that lend their songs an anthemic quality. As they proclaim on the taut, slow-tempo jam 'Hold Me Down,' 'My demons are begging me to open up my mouth.' Thankfully, Halsey consistently brings a strong sense of self to their content at every turn, musing with blithe emotion about their sexuality and creative independence. On 'Castle,' they sing 'I'm headed straight for the castle/They've got the kingdom locked up/And there's an old man sitting on a throne they're saying, 'I should probably keep my pretty mouth shut.'' Of course, it's clear from the start of Badlands that keeping their mouth shut is the last thing Halsey plans to do. However, underneath that icy landscape, Halsey burns with a feminist confidence, spitting out lyrics with their soulful voice that sounds like Björk with vocal fry. It's a goth throwback that brings to mind Danny Lohner's work with Nine Inch Nails. On the surface, Badlands is all chilly atmosphere, thanks to a bevy of thick bass tones, pulsing synthesizers, and rattlesnake percussion loops. music is still apparent, though they did collaborate here with a handful of like-minded producers including Lido, the Futuristics, and Son Lux, who helped flesh out their highly personal songs into even more dramatic, sonically dense recordings.

Buy the album Starting at $14.99Īn internet phenomenon, New Jersey's Ashley Frangipane, aka Halsey, parlayed their over 16,000 YouTube subscribers into a record deal with Astralwerks at age 18, a deal based primarily around their moody, synth-heavy single 'Ghost.' Two years later, Badlands finds the 20-year-old budding pop sensation delivering a set of songs that sound a lot like that fateful first single. Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.

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