With her new album climbing up the charts, Halsey’s genre of indie pop reaches the ears of the masses.
“Badlands” is Halsey’s debut album and has gained popularity in the same way that she started as an artist: the internet.
Halsey started out because of attention on the website soundcloud.com. She recorded her first single “Ghost” and uploaded it onto the website. In 2014, she was signed by a record label and she created her first EP “Room 93.”
The song “Ghost” made it onto “Badlands” as the last track of the album.
“This album is so amazing. I think that it’s the kind of album that artists strive to create over the course of their careers but Halsey hit it out of the park with her first try,” said senior Claire Gonzales.
Other songs on the album have themes such as depression, which is seen in the song “Control.”
The song has powerful lyrics such as: “And I’ve grown familiar with villains that live in my head. They beg me to write them so I’ll never die when I’m dead.”
“I love ‘Control’ so much because Halsey talks about mental illness and it’s just such a raw song where she reveals a part of her badlands to her audience,” said Gonzales.
Halsey also brings up problems such as conformity, which is in her song “Gasoline.”
In the song she talks about being part of the a machine and how she has “a fault in [her] code” so she stands out.
To promote “Badlands,” Halsey co-headlined on “The American Youth Tour” alongside Young Rising Sons, and in September she is headlining for her “Badlands” tour.
Overall, the album has more complex themes delivered through music that is easy to listen to. The sheer change from the status quo of pop music is enough to make it more interesting than regular pop.
5 / 5 stars
