Album Review: Halsey - Manic

If you look closely at the artwork for Halsey (Ashley Frangipane)'s latest record, you’ll notice “A01” written above its title, Manic. Although this is Halsey’s third album, it’s Frangipane’s first. While her previous records have been heavily concept-based, revolving around explorations of fantasy worlds with storylines and themes that link each track together, Manic is deeply personal.

It opens with Ashley, an overture of sorts that hints that she’s not writing as a character this time, but as herself. It’s also the first album she’s written while in a manic state (Frangipane was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when she was 17). The album is colourful, uses more live instrumentation than any of her previous synth-y releases and jumps between different emotions and genres. 3 AM has a punchy rock feel while Finally // Beautiful Stranger sounds more like a Kacey Musgraves-esque slow burner than anything we’d expect to hear on a Halsey album. What she does maintain is her poetic lyricism and tendency to deliver dark, angsty verses disguised as fun, catchy pop songs. 

The album's features (including Alanis Morissette and BTS rapper Suga) come in the form of unique, personalised interludes. She makes interesting use of samples taken from movies Jennifer’s Body (Killing Boys) and Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Ashley), using one of the latter film's lead characters as inspiration for single Clementine. 

Halsey's third album sees her change up her sound and swap theatrics for realness.