“Actually, they’ve just kind of let me take the wheel.” “Being a pop-leaning, female artist, you’d think that I’d have my record company breathing down my neck and trying to control everything I’m doing,” Halsey said while finishing “Badlands” in the spring. It’s a rare tightrope walk pulled off by other web-driven artists like Lorde and Lana Del Rey.īut with “Badlands,” a brooding, conceptual electro-pop record with industrial undertones and big radio-ready hooks, Halsey has realized not just her label’s vision but also her own. 28, Halsey will attempt to translate the secret language she shares with her online followers for a wider audience without losing its essential intimacy. With the release of her first album, “Badlands,” on Aug. Now, with her nearly half a million followers on Twitter and more on Instagram contributing to the heavy lifting, the singer and her label - Astralwerks, an electronic imprint under Capitol Music - have set the stage for a potential mainstream breakthrough. Instead of a viral flash of Internet lightning, Halsey, unfiltered and fast-talking, has been nurtured as an artist who could harness lasting loyalty online, not just one-off clicks. Frangipane’s pop-star alter ego, to have taken that innate 21st-century talent for self-presentation - not to mention songwriting - from her bedroom to arena stages in a mere year since signing with a record label. Album DescriptionIt was one thing for Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, a kid from New Jersey, to have 14,000 friends on MySpace at age 14 and 16,000 subscribers on YouTube at 18. 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 11.79€Īn 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.
0 kommentar(er)
