New Jersey native Ashley Frangipane, now known as Halsey, has successfully created a concept album that most 20 year old artists could only dream of. Halsey has traded in her innocent love of One Direction and YouTube covers for “an angry female record.” The record transports you into the mind of Halsey who delves deeper into the soul and creates a new world that is filled with corruption and greed.
The trailer for BADLANDS, which was released on August 7, showed the type of people that inhabit the land. In it Halsey states, “The city is disgusting. The corpse of what it used to be. The people are filthy, gluttonous…if this were a movie I would ride off in some blood red sunset into the wasteland that keeps us captured here, but this isn’t a movie. These are the Badlands.”
BADLANDS, Halsey’s debut album, weaves an intricate story that brings disparity, love, hope, relationship troubles, and familial problems into one album that can give anyone goose bumps. The first song off of the record, “Castle” has the gritty sound that resembles a Fiona Apple song and serves as the perfect introduction to the fantasyland called Badland.
Concept albums are often approached by aged musicians such as Radiohead, The Beatles, and Pink Floyd. However, newcomer Halsey has created an intro that takes you into her fantasyland and allows you to listen and explore. Each song takes on a new demon – whether it be physically, mentally, or emotionally taxing – and each song carries the audience towards the next battle. Halsey exposed her soul for everyone to hear, interpret, and apply to their own lives; something most artists are afraid to do.
Her trailer set up the anticipation for her album and it did not fall short. Though there are a few songs that are easier to connect to than others, all of the songs on the album have well written lyrics and an arrangement that many seasoned musicians would not be able to accomplish. The best track on BADLANDS is “Colors” which is about a relationship that is altered by the individuals involved and leads the two lovers into a toxic relationship.
Many fans speculate that the song was written about The 1975’s lead singer Matty Healy, whom Halsey was often seen on Instagram with. Halsey herself has admitted in various interviews that her favorite lyrics come from this song. Some such lyrics are: “You were red and you liked me because I was blue. But you touched me and suddenly I was a lilac sky. Then you decided purple just wasn’t for you.” The lyrics come across with an aura of fragility and loneliness that is often felt when a relationship becomes toxic and the only way to heal is to let go. The perfect song for a recent breakup or a sudden burst of nostalgia on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
BADLANDS comes across as a book with a beginning, middle, and end. Each song or chapter is met with a different challenge that oftentimes hits closer to home than intended. This is the album that you turn on when you’re happy. This is the album you listen to when fall comes, the leaves turn, the sky becomes gray, and the air begins to chill. BADLANDS even has the opportunity to be nominated for “Best Album of the Year” for the Grammy’s. Through this album Frangipane makes it clear that she is no longer the girl who sang the song “The Haylor Song” she’s a blue haired girl whose soul trapped in the world of the Badlands.