Halsey‘s highly anticipated If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power is finally here. The “Graveyard” singer dropped her provocative and dark fourth studio album Friday at midnight.
Halsey tapped Nine Inch Nails duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to produce the studio effort, which is a tremendous departure from her previous album, Manic.
In her newest offering, Halsey submerges herself in a labyrinth of raw human emotion, taking her listeners on a journey through her pain, rage, jealousy and despair across the album’s 13 tracks.
Halsey also wades deeper into the industrial rock and grunge genre, raising her voice into a rebellious yell with the songs “honey,” “You asked for this,” “Whispers,” “Easier than Lying,” and the album’s most sinister track “The Lighthouse.”
The latter is a symbolic take on the classic struggle with the devil, where she makes the hellish creature regret transforming her from a weak individual into a powerful force.
“Well, that should teach a man to mess with me/ He was never seen again and I’m still wanderin’ the beach/ And I’m glad I met the Devil ’cause he showed me I was weak/ And a little piece of him is in a little piece of me,” she boasts in the eerie track.
While the album emanates female empowerment and confidence, other tracks dive into Halsey’s struggle with self-hatred as heard in the track “Lilith,” where she sings about wanting love but believes a past relationship has corrupted her beyond repair.
Overall, fans are hailing If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power as a masterpiece.
The album is full of raw power and vulnerability, with Halsey unabashedly putting her inner chaos and torment on display, which she wraps up in her gentle, lilting vocals that ooze like honey.
IICHLIWP is available everywhere now.
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