Rating: ★★★ | B
Halsey has perhaps the most buzz of any new pop artist this year. A viral self-starter, she was offered a deal by Astralwerks, an electronic imprint of Capitol Records, less than 48 hours after executives first heard her work. Now, with only one EP and no real "hit" yet to her name, she has almost 750k followers on Instagram and was this year's most-tweeted-about artist at South by Southwest. Every date on her spring 2015 solo tour sold out in less than 30 minutes, and over the summer, she drew crowds as an opening act for arguably one the most popular alternative-pop groups of the decade, platinum-selling Imagine Dragons. She has a tone to her voice that is reminiscent at times of Alanis Morisette and Amy Winehouse, two of her idols, and a lyricism that rivals both.
On the opening track of her debut album, Halsey appears to acknowledge some of this hype. "I'm heading straight for the castle, they want to make me their queen" she sings, noting that "now my neck is open wide, begging for a first around it." She's "sick" and "tired" of the attention already, as well as those who would try to control her. On "Hold Me Down," she sings about selling "her soul to a three-piece" who "told her she was holy," but refers to the demons inside herself as the real danger. These tracks suggest a girl struggling to adapt to a new environment, or rather, to keep from losing herself in the process.
