Album Review: Badlands / Halsey

"I'm headed straight for the Castle / They wanna make me their Queen" - proclaims Halsey in the opening track of her debut album, 'Badlands'. Perhaps this statement has become somewhat of a reality since the release of the album, that managed to debut at #2 on the album sales chart with 115,000 copies sold in the first week alone, having only a 5 track EP (Room 93) to her name before the release on 28th August 2015.

Halsey has created an album that much of generation Y can relate to, with songs covering a range of themes such as drugs, love and heartbreak. Having addressed this as a 'concept album', Halsey came to realise that the whole concept was a metaphor of her mental state, more interestingly her Bipolar Mental Disorder. In her own words, Halsey said "the metaphor was that even with no escape, there is still optimism that there is somewhere else to go'.

The first single from the album is 'New Americana', narrates how collectively we are discontent with todays society ("survival of the richest"). The choir like chorus, chants "We are the new Americana / High on legal marijuana / Raised on Biggie and Nirvana", serving as a declaration of today's generation.

By far, my favourite track on the entire album is 'Strange Love'. It successfully manages to document how involved other people are in each others relationships, and life in general. "That's the beauty of a secret / You know you're supposed to keep it / But I don't have to fucking tell you anything" shows that she has learnt not to share everything about her life, as she simply doesn't have to. This is something everyone can take away from the song, and if you do want to tell them? You might as well choose the best way to - "I'm gonna write it all down / And I'm gonna sing it on stage".

'Badlands' as an album, is fantastic. As a debut album, it's exceptional. The life lessons this album chronicles are all very real, managing to create a very mature and interesting soundtrack. This is one album I won't get sick of listening to for a while. 

9/10

- E&C