Track By Track: Badlands - Halsey

Note: Out of Time is not responsible for any sickness from exposure to fangirling. If symptoms occurs, we highly recommend an immediate rush to your family doctor or in extreme cases, the ICU. Nova possesses enough fangirlishness to maim a small mammal. You have been warned.

Artist: Halsey
Album: Badlands
Release Date: August 28, 2015
Record Label: Astralwerks
iTunes

Track Listing [links to audio on YouTube]

Castle || Hold Me Down || New Americana || Drive || Hurricane || Roman Holiday || Ghost || Colors [+ pt. 2] || Strange Love || Coming Down || Haunting || Gasoline || Control || Young God || I Walk The Line

I first heard of Halsey when I was listening to a playlist on 8tracks. I was immediately taken by the lines in Hurricane, "don't belong to no city; don't belong to no man" and so, I sought to find more music. Back then, it was January and she hadn't released anything except the Room 93 EP. It was a concept album about being stuck in a hotelroom and the loneliness that comes with it.

Yo, Halsey is amazing.

Now that Badlands is out, I figured I would do commentary for each track. Badlands is about a state of mind where a person is feeling empty and ruined - like the Badlands. The entire sound of the album jumps around different genres, tied by a string of catchy pop vibes. I recommend listening to the songs either before reading or while. Most, if not all, of these opinions are good and gushing so no hate at all! I love Halsey's music.

The first track, Castle, is like the Throne of Glass song. It has a very serious and creepy vibe. Some artists order their tracks on the idea of "first impressions" being the reflection of the entire album. To me, Castle isn't a reflection of the album - Castle is a small part of a grand scale. I'm actually not sure about the melody since it's not really the jamming kind of song but it really does make me think. Also same with Control. Control isn't the kind of song I usually listen to because it's very dark with a "creepy vibe" but also very wise.

New Americana, Ghost and Hurricane are songs that were released way before the album was out. So to me, to hear them on the album wasn't a surprise. New Americana on Badlands is not the first version of the song. On my iTunes, I have both versions. The original version is a lot more low key while the Badlands version has a lot of a louder instrumental. I love both equally. Ghost is that song that is too good and too short. Seriously! It's only like two and a half minutes long. You already know how I feel about the genius that is Hurricane.

Halsey and her [ex] boyfriend duet in Drive and it is my soul. Remember Alex and Sierra? Yeah, they're also my goals. Drive is the kind of song that reminds me of freedom of the open road. Paired with Lana Del Rey's Ride, it's perfect for a roadtrip.

Most of the album talks about pretty dark topics but I really like the refresher of Roman Holiday. It's a track that is so filled with hope and making mistakes and in essence, just being a teenager. Halsey captures the moment perfectly.

Colors is the song I was looking for a studio version to. The way Halsey used colors and imagery in this song was stunning. It's about how someone went from Blue to Grey. I see it as how someone went from sinking to sunk. It's beautiful.

Coming Down is so chill. I heard a version of it leaked but it wasn't the official. For one thing, the version I heard was too fast and only featured the background guitar [it didn't have backup vocals and other effects.] Coming Down is the kind of song I nod my head to slowly while awkward dancing. The real version is comforting and catchy while also being very easy to listen to.

Strange Love is sassy as hell. It's like, "I don't have to fucking tell you anything!" in that voice. I even had a laugh when I was like, "this is Taylor Swift's song whenever people ask who her songs are about." I'm sorry, I'm cracking myself up. I also pair it with Haunting because to me, Haunting is about a person and Strange Love is about how Halsey doesn't want to talk about who it is.

My favorite songs are Gasoline and Young God for two different reasons. Gasoline features some amazing lyrics. I think the entire song is so well done, lyrically, but the chorus is my favorite. I don't understand how music can make me feel this way but this: "you can't wake up this is not a dream // you're part of a machine, you are not a human being // with your face all made up, living on the screen // low on self esteem, so you run on gasoline"
 
It reminds me of Robot by Miley Cyrus [which I love!] It's also very heavy in terms of music making the message forceful and demanding to be heard but not creepy, like with Control. There's nothing wrong with creepy but the forceful approach worked very well.
Young God has amazing music. It was the song I was humming while writing this blog post and I didn't even realize. When it comes to melody, I can't explain the formula for a perfect song but Young God definitely had it.