Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, who goes by the stage name of Halsey, is a young artist that is quickly rising to fame in the alternative scene. With only just a few singles out previously, her new album, Badlands, was released August 28th, and quickly climbed to number 2 on the US Billboard 200, an exceptional feat for a debut album.

 Halsey starts out the album strong with a track titled ‘Castle’ that immediately catches your ear from the beginning with it’s unique, eerie sound. It incorporates many elements of music in ways that many artists wouldn’t dare to do, using gospel vocals as a backing track in a song that is very far away from gospel, multiple layers of bass, pitching down her backing vocals, adding classical violin and more. The whole song gives a lo-fi illusion, sounding like the electronica could be created by anyone – when in reality, the average person couldn’t. The song stays strong through the entire four and half minutes, all the while having deep, meaningful lyrics. The ending of the song though, is what will stick with you. It’s raw, acapella final line contrasts the rest of the song beautifully. It’s a  great start to an album.

 The following two songs, ‘Hold Me Down’ and ‘New Americana’ follow the same algorithm as ‘Castle’, starting out alluring, staying strong through the median of the song by using a multitude of elements that make it interesting, ending stronger to make sure the song leaves an impression. The songs are undeniably more pop-y and mainstream, but still pretty good, even though they do have repetitive tones throughout.

 ‘Drive’, the track after ‘New Americana’, is a fantastic breath of fresh air. The song starts out with the noise that everyone can recognize as what sound cars make when the doors are opened, then quickly transitions to a beautiful chord progression where you hear squealing tires. The song seems great at first, but still repetitive like the songs preceding it. But then you get to the halfway mark, where another artist under the name of Lido joins in and harmonizes with Halsey. The effect this has is soul-wrenching, and adds the depth this song needs to cross the line from ‘great’ to ‘holy cow this sounds like magic in an audio file.’ At the end, you discover that the bass is actually the sound of a car engine, and that’s basically when your jaw hits the floor because of how clever.

 The next few songs just don’t seem up to par compared to the high standards this album seemed to have at first, ‘Roman Holiday’ is just plain repetitive and sounds like it should not be categorized as alternative music at all, while ‘Colors’ stops mid song to have Halsey give a very Taylor Swift-esque speech about how some guy doesn’t like purple. These songs are over all okay, just not exceptional compared to the previous ones.

 The token slow song every single album tends to have is next, titled ‘Coming Down’. If they mean ‘Coming Down’ to be short for ‘Oh my gosh there are tears coming down my face at a rapid pace, please help’, they were completely spot on with the titling. This song over all just sounds emotional and pulls at some heart strings with the beautiful beat that flows perfectly, along with passionate singing and meaningful lyrics.

 ‘Haunting’, ‘Control’, and ‘Young God’ all seem to be building up to the album’s last song. They all have an eerie undertone to them, sounding kind of off. They’re all fantastic songs with great lyrics and great beats, but they don’t really stick out too much, like they’re trying to make the album’s finale seem even more amazing in comparison. Though the recurring chord progression in ‘Control’ was beautiful, and left an impression.

 The previous three timid songs make a lot of sense when ‘Ghost’ plays. The song kicks off with a steady drum beat and what appears to be a short rap, which was definitely surprising. The song immediately draws you in, making you want to listen to the whole thing. It progresses into the undeniably catchy chorus which passes at a perfect pace, then goes back into the half singing half rapping that strangely works very well and ends the album in a very good way.

Badlands was honestly nice to listen to. It had it’s ups and downs, but really, what album doesn’t? It’s not super enticing to the point where I sat there for an hour after listening to it, contemplating the world – Yes, that happens. – but I definitely did listen to it a few more times as I worked on my homework, jamming out to the car engine bass drops, which still amaze me. It’s a great album that I recommend you give a try, even if alternative music isn’t your thing.