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Never Retallack<\/strong>\u00a0 | Entertainment Editor <\/span><\/p>\n Halsey released her third studio album on Jan. 17 by the name, \u201cManic\u201d which featured her 2018 Billboard Hot 100 number one hit \u201cWithout Me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This album was a heavy-hitter; it covered mental health, emotionally abusive relationships and struggles with self-love; she didn\u2019t hold anything back.<\/span><\/p>\n The first track titled \u201cAshley\u201d is a real start to a new Halsey era, exposing her true identity \u201cAshley Nicolette Frangipane\u201d and what she has gone through in her career. In the Spotify storyline feature, Halsey said, \u201c<\/span>This is an introduction but it\u2019s also a cautious goodbye,\u201d reflecting on how her audience would be affected should she ever \u201cdisappear.\u201d This was a pretty dark song, but an essential way to start her album.<\/span><\/p>\n Halsey described her second song \u201cclementine\u201d via Spotify storyline feature as, \u201c… a pinnacle moment for \u2018Manic.\u2019 It\u2019s when I really saw my inner self and inner child come through in sound as well as the lyrics. You can hear two voices.\u201d She refers to the calm and collected Halsey singing while Ashley yells impulsively in the background \u2014 a culmination of who she is and how she longs to be in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n The third song, \u201cGraveyard\u201d is one of my favorites. The catchy beat is inviting, and the meaning is deep. Halsey croons about loving someone who is in a bad place and without realizing, following them too far \u2014 far enough that it is detrimental to one\u2019s own health.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYou should be sad\u201d has an almost country twang to the guitar and vocals as Halsey sings about how happy she is to not have gone further in a relationship with someone who she describes as a terrible person. This is believed to be about her ex G-Eazy who was addicted to drugs and cheated on Halsey several times throughout their relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n While a lot of Halsey\u2019s album focuses on the faults of her exes\u00a0 that did more harm than good, she also acknowledges her own faults and battles, such as in her song \u201cForever\u2026 (is a long time)\u201d which discusses how her paranoia and anxiety that can harm a relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n The three interludes in \u201cManic\u201d cover three types of love, featuring three different artists. The first one, \u201cDominic\u2019s Interlude\u201d features Dominic Fike and is about brotherly love. The second \u201cAlanis\u2019 Interlude\u201d with Alanis Morissette is about loving women and sexual and professional empowerment. And the third \u201cSUGA\u2019s Interlude\u201d is where SUGA of BTS touches on self-love.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI HATE EVERYBODY\u201d is an important song for Halsey regarding her self-image. Her self-worth can often be equated by what other celebrities think is valuable, so she gets with them to earn that same respect that people have for such a star, and she is sick of it.<\/span><\/p>\n Halsey\u2019s song \u201c3am\u201d is reminiscent to the style of the early 2000s with the heavy guitar and belting vocals, and touches further on her need for acceptance and love, and the fear of being alone and undervalued.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of Halsey\u2019s most intimate and vulnerable songs on the album has to be \u201cMore\u201d which ties in her longing for love \u2014 while not necessarily romantic \u2014 and to someone who does not exist. Halsey has opened up about having endometriosis and having several miscarriages, and has recently discovered she can have children; at the end of \u201cMore,\u201d a sonogram can be heard beeping as the song fades out.<\/span><\/p>\n Overall Review: Halsey\u2019s album \u201cManic\u201d is a manifesto pushing past the heartache and pain she experienced in relationships to who she is as a person and how she has developed throughout the years. I resonated with what Western Howl staff member Ashlynn Norton said when she expressed that, \u201cHalsey\u2019s new album is the poetic self-help book for turning away love and people.\u201d Every song on the album hits heavy while still being something to dance to or cry to; an all around great exploration of Ashley.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n