Halsey: "BADLANDS"

[Live Your Life]

From HDD:

Halsey, meanwhile, has been developing a massive army of young fans, led by teen and preteen girls, in a developing story that’s strongly reminiscent of Lorde’s ascent to stardom. The New Jersey-bred 20-year-old’s real name is Ashley Frangipane—believe it—and Halsey is an anagram of her first name (and also a street name in Brooklyn; she identifies far more with NYC than with the Garden State).

Now her track “New Americana” is taking her over the top and driving major sales. First came a Beats 1 lovefest for an unofficial version of the track; presenter Zane Lowe praised it as a likely #1, commenting, “The anticipation building around the artist… is enormous.” Then KTCL Denver’s Nerf gave the official version its world premiere. Big spins on L.A.’s 98.7 and KROQ followed, and Halsey’s Badlands exploded in preorders.

“We are the new Americana/High on legal marijuana/Raised on Biggie and Nirvana,” goes the song’s chorus. If you pull up one of many YouTube clips of Halsey performing the song you’ll hear her increasingly giant crowds singing every single word.

Look for Steve Barnett, Greg Thompson and Team Capitol to break this one wide open, with a Lorde-ly potential for the blue-haired siren to increase the size of her nation of followers exponentially.

Her debut album, "BADLANDS," is available for pre order on iTunes now.

http://instagr.am/p/3SH9btnOF1

1. Castle
2. Hold Me Down
3. New Americana
4. Drive
5. Hurricane
6. Roman Holiday
7. Ghost
8. Colors
9. Colors, Pt. 2
10. Strange Love
11. Coming Down
12. Haunting
13. Gasoline
14. Control
15. Young God
16. I Walk The Line

Single, "New Americana":







She's also been selected as a Vevo LIFT artist:

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

She reminds me of a less aloof early Lana Del Rey

[Live Your Life]

[Live Your Life]

[Live Your Life]

[Live Your Life]

Projected to debut with 70-80k (sales only).

Rolling Stone gives the album 3.5/5 stars:

Images on this 20-year-old New Yorker's debut flicker by like broadcasts from a battlefield or texts from a party: the man with his hands around a pretty girl's throat, the rich kid with a designer bag full of airplane liquor bottles, the father putting his fist through a wall when his daughter sneaks off to meet someone in the city. The music recalls Lorde or Rihanna heard from across a suburban football field, and it wears out faster than the lyrics — which vibrate with the twists and turns of a young woman taking command of her body, mind, and then the world.

[Active Aggressive]

@ her outselling established artists like that out of the gate. I bought it but haven't heard a single song yet so I am excited.

[Live Your Life]

All Music gives the album 3.5/5 stars:

An internet phenomenon, New Jersey's Ashley Frangipane, aka Halsey, parlayed her over 16,000 YouTube subscribers into a record deal with Astralwerks at age 18, a deal based primarily around her 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. Which isn't a bad thing. The sound that defined her D.I.Y. music is still apparent, though she did collaborate here with a handful of like-minded producers including Lido, the Futuristics, and Son Lux, who helped flesh out her highly personal songs into even more dramatic, sonically dense recordings. On the surface, Badlands is all chilly atmosphere, thanks to a bevy of thick bass tones, pulsing synthesizers, and rattlesnake percussion loops. It's a goth throwback that brings to mind Danny Lohner's work with Nine Inch Nails. However, underneath that icy landscape, Halsey burns with a feminist confidence, spitting out lyrics with her soulful voice that sound like Björk with vocal fry. On "Castle," she sings "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 her mouth shut is the last thing Halsey plans to do. As she proclaims 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 her content at every turn, musing with blithe emotion about her sexuality and creative independence. She also has a knack for singling out little generational touchstones that lend her songs an anthemic quality. On "New Americana," her vocals double-tracked like the children's chorus on Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall," she sings, "We are the new Americana/High on legal marijuana/Raised on Biggie and Nirvana." Interestingly, while her noir-ish, older-than-her-years image has drawn comparisons to contemporaries like Lana Del Rey and Lorde (and yes, there are similarities), musically, she has 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. There's also something angry, literate, and youthfully defiant about Badlands that brings to mind the sneer of Garbage's Shirley Manson. Ultimately, it's all of Halsey's seemingly contradictory elements brought together that lend Badlands such a fascinating topography.

[H.]

I can't believe this is going to sell so well.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

I'd give this a 2/5. Not total throw away, but certainly not innovative and definitely not good. Unless you're 13 and think having a blue pixie cut is edgy

[SHOOTER]

Her album did nothing for me. There were maybe 3 songs I liked while listening but they weren't memorable enough that I can now recall them by name.

[Active Aggressive]

Yeah to be honest, I am not as in love as I was hoping. It will probably grow on me but it wasn't really memorable.

[Active Aggressive]

...and, only a few days later, eating crow. The definition of a grower as nothing really sticks out to me immediately outside of Roman Holiday, New Americana, and Control but the whole is definitely greater than its individual parts, for sure. Very solid.

[K.]

The album gets kind of heavy and monotonous. "Roman Holiday," though, is beautiful. I really think that is a hit.

[Glove Slap]

Sept 6, 2015 21:11:53 GMT -5 K. said:

"Roman Holiday," though, is beautiful.

Yup. I took a quick listen through the regular edition and that's what stuck out in a good way. The rest is rather grating, largely because of her usually shrill Avril-esque whiny vocals. There's parts that could be utilized well, but they're ruined by bad lyrics or vocals.

[Active Aggressive]

I don't hear Avril at all. She just sounds like one of those affected singers with interesting pronounciation like Lorde, Mo, Banks, etc.

[Enigma.]

I like the album a lot! She's definitely filling the void Lorde has left for us.

[Live Your Life]

[Keelzit]

This girl confuses the hell out of me. With her longer hair she looks like a good fairy gone bad but with her short hair she looks just like Pink and I'm not here for that. Even her facial expressions and body movements change depending on her hair's length lol Perhaps she interchanges between these 2 looks/characters to address her bipolar disorder.

[BadRomance]

Really into the album. She sounds more like Lorde than Lana. I love every songs, perfect for the Fall!

[tsr]

This has become one of my favorite albums of the year. There are a few clunkers ("Strange Love," "Coming Down" and "Hold Me Down") but almost everything else is great. Colors and Roman Holiday both need to be singles.

1. Colors
2. Roman Holiday
3. Ghost
4. New Americana
5. Haunting
6. Drive
7. Control
8. Hurricane
9. Gasoline
10. Castle
11. Young God
12. Colors, Pt II
13. I Walk the Line
14. Strange Love
15. Hold Me Down
16. Coming Down

[Colton]

Halsey is touring Madison Square Garden

[suttonplace]

I am ???? at the MSG show. She's playing 1000-1500 seat venues on tour this fall. Her team thinks she will be able to fill the Garden by August? I like her but that seems like a huge jump

[nightshade]

Oct 22, 2015 11:08:40 GMT -5 suttonplace said:

I am ???? at the MSG show. She's playing 1000-1500 seat venues on tour this fall. Her team thinks she will be able to fill the Garden by August? I like her but that seems like a huge jump

I'm from Texas and buying tickets so...

[Colton]

[Rocky]

Initially, I judged the whole thing by "New Americana", which was so uninteresting that it never made me check out the album. A few weeks ago I gave in, and played it a few times. Such a grower. My favourites are "Ghost", "Colors", "Hurricane" and maybe "Coming Down". There are some fillers, but they aren't bad either. Unlike "New Americana". Talk about a bad lead single. The lyrics ruins an otherwise decent melody. At least we have "Drive", which sounds like a better version of NA.

[Wavey✨️]

"Gasoline" is bomb.

[tsr]

Nov 2, 2015 17:14:08 GMT -5 Wavey✨️ said:

"Gasoline" is bomb.

YES. The nod to "Hurricane" is one of my favorite moments on the album.

[areyoureadytojump]

11/14 Billboard 200:

BADLANDS - Halsey ( 187,000 ) = pure album sales

[Deleted]

The most interesting thing about her is that she's half-black. Her music is so boring.