Halsey – If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power

Review

Venturing into uncharted territory, Halsey's "If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power" emerges as a stark, industrial odyssey that deftly sidesteps her pop origins, thanks to the visionary production from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails fame. The album unfurls a narrative tapestry, weaving through the tumultuous landscapes of personal agency, the scars of trauma, the embodiment of motherhood, and the metamorphosis of self and society. It's a canvas painted with the stark contrasts of brooding electronics, the raw power of explosive guitars, and the trance-like allure of hypnotic synths.

Tracks like "Bells in Santa Fe" and "Easier than Lying" pulse with a defiant punk spirit, while their melodies cling to the listener like the remnants of a half-remembered dream. In the quieter corners of the album, "The Lighthouse" and "Ya'aburnee" shine as beacons of vulnerability, offering solace and a sense of shared catharsis. Halsey's lyrics cut deep, delivering a potent blend of intimate revelations and incisive societal observations. This collection is a study in duality: it's both a raw, unfiltered expression and a polished, deliberate work of art, tender in its emotive reach yet ferocious in its intensity. "If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power" is a testament to the multitudes contained within the human experience, a genre-blurring opus that defies easy categorization. - Tyler