REVIEW: HALSEY - IF I CAN'T HAVE LOVE, I WANT POWER

 

4/5

Halsey and One.

Hollywood Hills higher than even the Showtime decades old courtside connection of 'The Shining' Jack Nicholson, your new Laker superfan for the LeBron James, Anthony Davis and now Russell Westbrook age of the big-three is pops Halsey. And why the f### not? The superstar not only knows their stuff, they've also created a separate Twitter account to live tweet during purple and gold games. Halsey and One. Now sitting on the throne with another little one Halsey is back in the blockbusters of the charts she holds a crowning castle in like King James. She may not always feel the love (fools) right now (apart from ours, their husband and of course all of theirs for their little one), but boy do they have the power like classic Kanye. 'Donda' may not have dropped again this New Music Friday, but the movie making 'If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power' certainly has. A compelling concept album about the "joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth". Scored in production by the industrial rock come mainstream movie soundtrack ('The Social Network', 'Gone Girl') duo of Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Hear this one roar in all their regal lion grace of force and watch the throne. It's theirs now. Baring it all like Lorde's 'Solar Power' for the art and the solidarity. All whilst igniting the hottest summer with contemporaries like Billie Eilish as we're 'Happier Than Ever'. Going Gaga over all these Del Rey 'Chemtrails' in this eternal power of the woman and more than that. Following their opening EP ('Room 93') and their big-three pop shot albums of 'Badlands', 'Hopeless Fountain Kingdom' and 'Manic', the Jersey star gets their Springsteen songwriting on for the mothers milk of some Madonna and Mother Mary like inspirations that will really sing to you in this cinematic gold game of thrones, birthed for IMAX movie moments. 

With their own Best Picture like Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell's forthcoming album associated animation for Disney, Ashley  Nicolette Frangipane really is a Hollywood household Halsey name now like California courtside celebs. The Astralwerks star who has helped the likes of K-Pop goliath BTS achieve 'Boy With Luv' like crossover chart success before they billboard exploded in English language 'Dynamite' is now digging the competitions grave with NIN, all whilst bringing new life into this world. Cinematic. Feminism taking on misogyny and the patriarchy. This is more than a movie moment. It's a movement. A grunge-pop one to the tune of some stirring artwork that's on a Lorde or 'Never Mind' level of Nirvana. But no one's going to sue this time. Halsey's reign is as natural as breastfeeding. Come on if you think a woman can't do it. And recognise Halsey goes by the she/they pronouns now too. More than a woman like Aaliyah. But still an iconic role model for one and anyone. As beyond the nails in the critics career coffin this power play is also assisted by rock Gods like the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl (drumming on 'Honey' like he did Nirvana) and Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham (not forgotten here like SNL ("What's Up With That"), 'Darling'). You've got to love it. 'The Tradition' begins with an opening piano play to this no love, all power. Halsey haunts hallmark harmonies, taking everyone to task and town with vivid vocals. "Oh, the loneliest girl in town/Is bought for pennies a price/We dress her up in lovely gowns/She's easy on the eyes/Her soul is black and it's a fact/That her sneer will eat you alive/And the buyer always brings her back/Because all she does is cry." Beating into the beautiful 'Bells In Santa Fe' that was built for the big-screen like the epic videos of this visual album. All for an artist who was walking around the Louvre in Paris with the one she loves like Jay and Bey for 13 minutes like she was going 'Apes###'. Looking the very fabric of a real queen in all their robes. 

The 'Bells' in turn instrumentally segue into the next track, 'Easier Than Lying' as Halsey speaks their truth. "My heart is massive, but it's empty/A permanent part of me, that innocent artery/Is gaspin' for some real attention/Some undivided hypertension." With 'Frasier' nostalgia, 'Lilith' is right there with the King Princess 'Taliah's' or Norah Jones 'Miriam's' that aim for the first person singular success of Dolly's 'Jolene'. I'm begging of you Halsey, don't take your songwriting away, just because you can. Because this 'Girl Is A Gun' track bangs across scattered drums singing, "It's a shot in the dark, I'm not a walk in the park/Unloaded, the safety switched off/This girl is a gun, and we been havin' some fun/And now I show you if you turn the lights on." 'You Asked For This' they tell us, hook, line and another song sinker over Reznor and Ross riffs. When it comes to these last two shots if the Laker fan was commented on by the Hall of Fame Mike Breen you know what he'd say. "Halsey for the win...BANG!" And the aftermath of this 'Darling' is beautiful like the Buckingham assist that feels like another tango in the night. "Well, I won't die for love/but I've got a body here to bury" she declares on the stone cold cut '1121'. Whilst like a 'Cold Day In The Sun', the Grohl of old growls on the skins of 'Honey' like a bear for the sap. All the way to the iron of "blood in my mouth". It's the 'Whispers' you really hear here. "It's the thing in your thighs when you're lonely at night/Scroll through your phone, getting high off the light/Numb in your chest when you close the blinds/We pose in time and you tell yourself you're fine but you/Sabotage the things you love the most/Camera flash so you can feed the light that show compose." Speaking truth to power louder than the lights, camera, action in this world that needs less likes and more love like a mural in Kobe, Japan. No wonder the Mamba Mentality of this artists lead single tells us 'I'm Not A Woman. I'm a God.' All the way to the shutter island beams of 'The Lighthouse' like Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe. Even though "no one hears (you) screaming." It's that far out. Like the power of this album. All the way to the love and power struggle of the 'Ya'aburnee' closer. "And if we don't live forever/Maybe one day we'll trade places/Darling, you will bury me/Before I bury you/Before I bury you." Before this album is laid to rest in your record player. Fire ashes to vinyl dust, it feels like another mainstream classic for the music and movie billboards. It's just that much of a blockbuster in La La Land. In pops new golden era, one woman...no...one God has all that power. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Bells In Santa Fe', 'Lilith', 'I Am Not A Woman, I'm A God.'