Yep, picture #2 is the Walmart / Target * version of Halsey's new album, If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power.
Because you can exploit a woman's sexuality all you want...as long as you don't show the nipple. (Or the pudendum, but that is not an issue here.)
But you know...there's something else wrong with this picture, isn't there? Halsey has a net worth of $20 million. She also has her own website, and she could sell this album herself if she wanted to...she doesn't need Walmart and Target. But that might cut into her bottom line, so...as proud as she is of her nipple, she's willing to cover it up in order to push more units along. And maybe she'll even get to do interviews in which she declaims against The Man and The Patriarchal Hierarchy which forbad her nipple from the shelves of these Big Box stores. (Hmm...so why do those versions of the album include extra tracks? It's almost like she thinks she can trick some folks into buying TWO copies of her album.)
Well, that's a win-win, isn't it?
I'm seriously tired of women who exploit their sexuality in crass ways...especially when they then complain about men who notice their sexuality.
So I'm seriously tired of women like Halsey.
And with that in mind...I decided I was going to force myself to listen to this album. The last time I did this...forcing myself to listen to Lizzo's Cuz I Love You...I had to doff my cap and admit that it was a good album with some great singing, and it made me look at that (rather hideous, in my opinion) album cover in a different way.
So let's go.
According to Wikipedia, there are going to be thirteen tracks on this thing:
1. "The Tradition" 3:46
2. "Bells in Santa Fe" 3:37
3. "Easier than Lying" 3:26
4. "Lilith" 2:47
5. "Girl is a Gun" 2:26
6. "You Asked for This" 4:25
7. "Darling" 3:02
8. "1121" 2:42
9. "Honey" 2:53
10. "Whispers" 3:11
11. "I Am Not a Woman, I'm a God" 2:56
12. "The Lighthouse" 4:33
13. "Ya'aburnee" 3:08
...for a total playing time of 42:52. Oh, and there's a Bonus Track for Walmart shoppers: "Nightmare" (reprise), which is apparently a re-recording of an old single, but no running time is stated for that one. Given the above, though, let's put it at 3 minutes...which makes for a pretty generous total playing time at close to 50 minutes.
Oops. Maybe 4. Since it is a re-do of an old song, I looked it up and found a video for "Nightmare" that was 4 minutes long. Watched it. And? It was about what I expected. Lots of tit focus. Some ass focus. A couple of crotch grabs. Lots of rage. Shouted lyrics. Tough talk: I like to get hit in the mouth, I like the taste of blood. "No man will tell me...." But it was all posturing. At no point was there any kind of story which would show what the singer / narrator was going through. As if all men are part of the Patriarchal Hegemony, so why bother getting into the specifics. Let's just say it wasn't my cup of tea, and that it rang false to me. (As in, "Methinks the multi-millionaire doth protest too much.")
[Oops again. I just read some online reviews of the album, and apparently the extra track(s) aren't on the vinyl...you just get a download code for them. Wow...that's some bullshit there, ennit? The cover sticker says there are Bonus Tracks. That's supposed to mean On the Album, not Go Online and Find Them.]
I know the album isn't due out for another four days, but I thought there might be a video or two up, so I looked for that. Found a clip of "I Am Not a Woman, I'm a God" which is the trailer for...oh my... the movie which accompanies this album release.
Well. I suppose I am going to have to see that. But I'm going to try to get a woman to go with me. And I'm going to sit through it and grit my teeth if I have to, but not say a word, and when it's over I'm going to turn to said woman and ask (in a completely neutral voice), "So, what did you think?"
As for "I Am Not a Woman, I'm a God," it was a bit more melodic than "Nightmare," and not quite as obnoxious, but it was certainly cut from the same cloth. Lots of breast focus. Lots of anger. Lots of shouting. And...well, who the fuck declaims, "I'm a God?" I'd say there are only three possibilities: (1) a totally self-absorbed, narcissistic sociopath, (2) a crazy person (as in clinical, not hyperbole or metaphor), or (3) a person who wants to exploit the audience by resorting to ridiculous posturing.
To the tracks.
1: "The Tradition" starts off with a delicate piano line, then Halsey comes in with a sing-songy voice about a girl who is being exploited for her sexuality. The chorus comes in with an edgier voice, and by the time we get to the bridge the voice is doubled. There are moments when Halsey's voice is really grating, other moments when it's not so bad.
2: "Bells in Santa Fe," on the other hand, starts off with the "pouty mouth" voice which I really dislike, and a lot of the phrases end with a little breathy whine which really irritates me. The music, on the other hand, is interesting. A pulsing beat with an electronic edge, kind of a late 80s sound. About halfway through I thought, "I guess to be fair I should be looking at the lyrics of these songs as I listen, because I really don't have a good idea about what Halsey is talking about. She seems less angry in this song, though. It ends with a bit of cacophony, which then drops right into the next song.
3. "Easier Than Lying" And oh my God, the chorus of this one is just unbearable. Is this really the voice and attitude of a 26 year old woman? I've seen more maturity (in voice as well as in substance) from 16 year old girls. Seriously. This is just shit. Although again I have to say that the music is kind of interesting. That drummer...my goodness. I tried to find out who it was via Wikipedia, and didn't come up with a name. Could it be that these were programmed drums? At any rate...in reading the musician credits I did find out that Lindsey Buckingham plays guitar on one track (7), and that Dave Grohl plays drums on another (9).
Interesting.
4. "Lilith" Mostly a rap song. And...oh, my God, what a poser this woman is. I'm already sick of this album.
Nevertheless, I persisted.
5. "Girl Is a Gun" Well. I don't really feel that I need to say anything about this song at all, as the title implies everything that I would have said. Although I will add that the "little girl" voice Halysey uses here is just pathetic.
6. "You Asked For This" That's right, you motherfucker, you've pushed me TOO FAR! Now I'm going to show you my TIT! Not to mention..."I want a fist around my throat." Um, really? 'Cause I don't know if you know this, but that is VERY fucked up, Halsey.
I really wish there was an instrumental version of this album. I think I'd enjoy the music if it didn't have these bullshit lyrics and baby girl vocals.
I'm still committed to finishing this album, but in the interests of full transparency, I will admit that I've now started drinking hard.
7. "Darling" I took a little break in the middle of this stupid (trite, sing-songy) song and started thinking about Miley Cyrus. As an unwilling to listener of Miley on numerous occasions, I have to say that she displays more talent, insight, and sincerity in any one of her songs than I've heard in the first 6 1/2 songs of this album. This is just bullshit, man.
8. "1121" And speaking of The Tit...in interviews, Halsey said things like, "I had to show my Tit in order to honor my status as a mother, as a breast feeder, as a woman who controls her own image." Riiiight. If she wanted to honor herself as a mother and as a breast feeder, then why isn't that baby sucking on the Tit? It's just sad. If you want to show your Tit to the world, then do it. Lots of people will be glad to have a look. Me among them. But at least be honest. You're doing this because it will get banned in Walmart and Target, and because it will generate lots of buzz and you'll sell more copies of a pretty bad album.
Consistency is all we ask.
9. "Honey" Well, the drums were cool. The auto-tune vocals I could have done without. And what's this? More Blood In My Mouth. Halsey has some fixations, for sure. Not healthy ones. Just sayin'. But the drums actually make me able to listen to this song, which is more than I can say for the rest of the album so far.
10. "Whispers" And yes, it does contain some whispered lyrics. It's pretty much a rap song, but a really bad rap song. Oh, look...whiskey.
11. "I Am Not a Woman, I'm a God" Well, I already know and hate this song, so I'm just gritting my teeth through it this time.
"Everyday I've got a smile where my frown goes
A couple bodies in the garden where the grass grows
I take 'em with me to the grave in a suitcase
Maybe I could be a different human in a new place"
12. "The Lighthouse"
You know, I almost bought this album on vinyl. For one thing, because I like Tits. For another, I saw it had been pressed on white vinyl (Target version), and I really like white vinyl. (Of course, you can't have Tits and white vinyl. The Tit cover only comes on black vinyl.) Thanks to Hoopla, I didn't do that. And I can't tell you how happy I am about that. There is no way that I will be listening to this album a week from now. I am going to try to force myself to listen to it at least one more time, but I doubt that I'll be able to make it past that. (I don't trust my first impressions, but at the same time I don't have to taste shit to know I don't want to eat it.)
ANYway...thanks, Hoopla. I owe you about $26.
P.S. So the next day I thought I'd have another play of the album, just to try to be fair, and this time read the lyrics as the songs played. Only to find out that my Hoopla loan had expired. But this is the 21st century, wherein we have so little respect for our artists of the musical variety that it only took me a few seconds to find the whole album for free on YouTube. So we're off, you know.
I noticed in the song credits to "The Tradition" that there were four names listed...which seems a bit excessive, doesn't it? Anyway, they were Atticus Ross / Greg Kurstin / Trent Reznor / Ashley Frangipane. I only knew one of those names, so I checked on the others. Atticus Ross is a guy who's been around for awhile, and who has done lots of work with Trent Reznor (the one name I knew). So that made sense. Greg Kurstin is another guy who's been around for a long time, and has produced quite a few groups & solo artists, most of it pretty poppy stuff. Hmmm. Trent Reznor is Trent Reznor. And Ashley Frangipane, as you no doubt know (but I didn't) is Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, which is "Halsey"'s real name. Interesting that she is the last one listed on the credits. Could be modesty. But I think not, since she is the first one listed on the credits of the next song. So...I assume that she had the least to do with the writing of this song. That gave me a moment's worth of pause. Here we have a song which is written by committee, 75% of which is male. Well...maybe it's just this song, right? Trent came up with a riff, Atticus said, "Great stuff! How about if we add THIS?" Then Greg wandered into the room, heard what was going on, and said, "Oh, yeah, perfection! It just needs a little bit of THIS to be perfecter!" And when they were finished and listening to the playback, sipping beers, Halsey came in and said, "Sup, turd farmers? Hey, I'm going to croon a little bit to this tune." Done.
But "Bells in Sante Fe" was committee written, too: Ashley Nicolette Frangipane / Trent Reznor / Atticus Ross / John Cunningham. John Cunningham? Couldn't find anything on him on Wikipedia, but another site showed him to be a youngish songwriter and producer based in LA. Looks like he was pretty small potatoes before This Moment. So, yeah. I'm thinking pretty much the same story as "The Tradition," except (1) Halsey walked in with a shitty little poem written on a piece of notebook paper, said, "Hey, boys, what can you do for THIS?" Trent and Atticus got to work, and when they were finished and listening to the playback, sipping beers, John walked in and said...well, you know what kind of eyes she got.
And then there's "Easier Than Lying." * Check out this line:
"I'm only whatever you make me...."
I don't think it needs to be pointed out, but JiC...these are not the words of a strong woman. These are not the words of a woman in charge of her own life.
And a few lines later, there's this: "'Cause I'll hang myself if you give me a rope...."
In "Lilith," * we get this: " fuck like a demon / Do it like nothin' / I am disgustin'...."
"This Girl Is a Gun" might be the low point of the album. Halsey's voice is at its most irritating, sing-songy, the lyrics are abysmally stupid, and the music just flounces along like a bad commercial jingle.
"You Asked For This" sounds a bit Foo Fight-ery (co-writer Greg Kurstin), and it's probably the best music on the album. Unfortunately it also includes the line, "I want a fist around my throat...."
I do like the way the FuZZ sound at the end of this track leads right into the next song. I'm guessing that doesn't come off on the cd version, though...seems like there's always a little bit of silence on this kind of thing. Kind of reminds me of the old 8 track tape shenanigans.
"Darling" back to * for songwriters. Sing-songy, kind of alt-bullshit thing. Which is actually a nice break musically, but, again, Halsey's voice is just so affected. The song is mostly a meditation on death and her love for her child...but it's garnished with trite lines like "I'll kidnap all the stars and I will keep them in your eyes."
"1121" * There is a slightly interesting bit near the end of this song where Halsey does a duet with herself and her auto-tuned voice, but the lyrics are so insipid that it's hard to bear this. The phrase "I won't die for love" occurs six times. Which is about five times too many.
"Honey" * Dave Grohl's drums on this song are really impressive. (Are we SURE that that wasn't him on drums on "You Asked For This?" **) A song about fucking another woman. Which is fine, although "the blood in my mouth" after the encounter is a bit much. The big poetic trope here is that "she" is a bee. Hence the honey. This would be a good song if it had different lyrics. And a different vocalist.
Speaking of...at this point I thought, "I wonder what Halsey sounds like live?" So I went to see what I could see. The first song that came up was a performance at a Victoria's Secret show. I thought it was ridiculous in and of itself...and the vocal sounded canned to me, so despite the parade of lovely women with the conficent "You want to fuck me" in their eyes, I moved on.
To something called "You Should Be Sad" which was just Halsey and a guitarist. And lo and behold...she can sing. I find her voice pretty irritating...lots of gasps and ululations. But not nearly as irritating as her hand motions, which just seem overwrought to me, and are definitely distracting. Anyway...as I watched her sing (I've been "watching" a still picture of her album cover while listening to the new album) I realized that there's something about this woman's appearance that just really irritates and even revolts me. And I'm wondering what that is...and how much affect it has upon how I'm hearing her.
"Whispers" And with that thought in mind, I tried to listen to the next song with a different mindset. And maybe it was just the song, not my attempt to shift perspective, but I did have a different reaction. I actually felt sorry for Halsey. She seems so immensely damaged...so obviously dealing with serious mental problems. This song includes a whispering voice which attempts to stop her conscious mind from having sex with a man she doesn't desire. And includes a reference to committing suicide: "Might have to trick her and treat her / To seventy capsules or fly to a castle / So at least we could say that we died being traveled...." Aside from the pathos, this seems to be a slightly better song than many of the others. Well, not really a song, but whatever it is, the vocal delivery here is not as stilted as it is in most (maybe all) of the songs that preceded it, as if instead of being affected, she is actually getting down to something that is a truth for her. Unfortunately, that sincerity is still subverted by really dopey lyrics: "Scroll though your phone getting high off the light"..."Why do you need love so badly? / Bet it's because of her daddy"..."I've got a monster inside me / That eats personality types." Seriously, I've read tons of poetry by teenagers, and a lot of it was better than this.
ANYway...I borrowed my daughter's Bose speaker and had another listen to this song at higher volume and fidelity. It definitely made a difference to feel that bigger bass and some of the nuances of the Reznor / Ross musical backdrop.
So I let it roll right into "I Am Not a Woman, I'm a God."
And you know...even though I despise that title...and even though, once again, the lyrics tend toward the insipid...and even though I do not like Halsey's voice very much...I have to admit that this song works. The driving beat, the way the synthesizers drone to accentuate certain lyrics...it works. Also, there's a line that leaned out and beckoned to me: "Maybe I could be a better human with a new name." That is definitely part and parcel of some of the thoughts that occurred to me when I was listening to "Whispers" a minute ago. And I started wondering if that brazen exhibitionism which seems to be so much a part of Halsey is rooted right here, in the feeling she expresses that she is not a very good human being. In fact, that kind of explains everything, in a way. The regular doses of self-abnegation. The lack of specificity. The anger. The trite lyrics. The over-reliance on her body to communicate. The references to suicide. When you feel shitty about yourself, there really aren't any limits to how you will let yourself be abused...or how you will abuse other people. You are a God in that you feel free from all restraints, free to do whatever you want to do because you really don't give a shit about anyone else. Or yourself, for that matter. It's the ultimate in nihilistic agony to see yourself as a God.
I think.
"The Lighthouse" What a lyrical mess this is, but more bits that fit into the picture that I seem to have constructed above: she swims with the devil, she doesn't have any feet, she wants to be rescued, she doesn't want to be rescued, nobody can hear her scream. Not to mention rage: "From a tender age I was cursed with rage / Came swinging like a fist inside a batting cage." By the way...a batting cage is not the place to be shadow boxing. But that's just the lyrical sloppiness that runs through every one of these songs.
"Ya'aburnee" Collins Dictionary (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/submission/3282/Ya’aburnee) defines the word this way: "this Arabic term means 'You bury me,' a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them." Well. Unless she's talking about her child, that's a bit of a surprise, isn't it? This whole album has been centered around the idea that the narrator is incapable of love, scorns commitment, and doesn't have it in her to do anything except use others for her own gratification. And now, this: "Take my life, and take my soul."
Before this listen, I would have been talking about how the lack of any logic or consistency here is just overwhelming. Now I just feel pity for this woman.
Funny: as I was typing the above a new track came on: Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love." And I felt like I had just stepped into a hot shower after a cold day of chopping wood in a muddy forest. What a difference. I'm thinking that Halsey's music is for people who feel shitty about themselves and want to feel shittier. Redbone's song is for people who know it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.
Later...
Was just thinking, What do I know about Halsey after listening to this album? Hmm. I know she's really angry. I know that she's self-destructive and has a shitty attitude about herself. If we include the video portion of the songs, I know that she likes to get the viewer to focus on her body, especially her tits.
And by the way, this is what Halsey had to say about the album cover picture on her Instagram page:
"This album is a concept album about the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth. It was very important to me that the cover art conveyed the sentiment of my journey over the past few months. The dichotomy of the Madonna and the Whore. The idea that me as a sexual being and my body as a vessel and gift to my child are two concepts that can co-exist peacefully and powerfully. My body has belonged to the world in many different ways the past few years, and this image is my means of reclaiming my autonomy and establishing my pride and strength as a life force for my human being.
This cover image celebrates pregnant and postpartum bodies as something beautiful, to be admired. We have a long way to go with eradicating the social stigma around bodies & breastfeeding. I hope this can be a step in the right direction!"
(https://www.instagram.com/p/CRCFhAHt6J6/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=30f9379f-e247-481d-9938-bc3bc0b2fafd)
Well...that's just bullshit. If the cover were a celebration of pregnancy and postpartum bodies (etc.), then wouldn't she at least be breast feeding that baby? And wouldn't that baby be a bit younger...and not being held out with one hand like a prop? Of course. This picture is about two things: (1) Look how nice my Tit looks! and (2) See how shocking I am? Well, (1) the Tit doesn't look that good, really. (Is that even a real Tit? Looks a bit like a ball with a nipple.) And (2) Hate to tell you, Halsey, but Tits have been here before.
* And probably others--you can let me know.
** I guess it isn't. The only drum credits given (via Wikipedia, which is the only place I could find anything) are for tracks 4 (Karriem Riggins) and 9 (Dave Grohl). Which would mean that these drums are programmed by one of the four guys *** listed as "programming" on this album.
*** Speaking of...of the 21 people who are not Halsey listed as having contributed to the making of this album...21 of them are men. You'd think that someone who proclaims that she is a God...and that since she can't have Love, she wants Power...would want to be a little more equitable about who she hires to work on her album, wouldn't you? I have to say that I think this says something about Halsey...and it isn't anything good.
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