Album Review: Halsey - If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power (Deluxe)

Content Warning: mentions of mental illness, body dysmorphia, trauma, miscarriage, sleep paralysis

Halsey’s fourth studio album If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power is a self-proclaimed ‘concept album about the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirths.’ Two years ago, saw a darker side of Halsey’s music in previous album Manic and this album continues Halsey’s straying from pop, with a mixture of punk, emo, and rock sounds. In perhaps one of the most surprising collaborations after Taylor Swift and Brendon Urie, Halsey’s heavy industrial sound of If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power has been produced by Trent Razor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails. The album is tightly focused on the line between self-destruction and self-empowerment, the dichotomy of the Madonna-Whore complex, and the reclamation of the body as a sexual vessel, as well as one that can carry life. This concept album combines beautiful lyricism with the horror of love to make an unmistakable statement. The result is haunting.

This concept album combines beautiful lyricism with the horror of love to make an unmistakable statement

Haunting opening tracks ‘The Tradition’ and ‘Bells in Santa Fe’ are more evocative and less industrial than later songs in the album, though both tracks reclaim the historic mistreatment of women, to convey Halsey’s loneliness and the danger of being a woman. The moody, increasingly aggressive conclusion ‘it’s not a happy ending’ leads flawlessly into less forgettable tracks. The collaboration of Halsey and producers Trent Razor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails can more easily be seen in the cinematic and punk-rock ‘Easier Than Lying’ that uses a distorted bass and heavy drums, with a glorious bridge.

Halsey shows off their range with the hip-hop beat of ‘Lilith.’ The song conceptualises this album of birth and female sexuality, and Halsey’s fear of their inability to be satisfied in ungratifying romantic relationships is present in many of the songs. Similarly, to as in ‘The Tradition’ the narrator views themself as damaged goods; she gets ‘too caught up in a moment / I can’t fall in love because I’m focused.’

Tracks like ‘Girl is a Gun’ also focuses on the protagonist’s inability to be loved, but unlike others in the album, this track has a 90’s inspired, poppy, teasing attitude. A playful tone and crescendos in ‘You’ll be better off with a nice girl, darling’ uplifts this song about deep-seated relationship insecurity, making it easy to dance along to even with the message of ‘I keep falling in love, but this measuring cup/ is overflowing’ with the same damn problems.’ Tracks like ‘You Asked For This’ continue the pop sound, juxtaposed with gut-wrenching themes of mortality, bodily autonomy and society.

Tracks like ‘You Asked For This’ continue the pop sound, juxtaposed with gut-wrenching themes

Perhaps, the album’s biggest failing is the lack of cohesion between tracks. Halsey’s tracks all work well individually and yet together, create a sense of disconnect and confusion. It is possible this is to reflect Halsey’s relationship with bipolar but it seems more like she is reaching for a rock album that this album just falls short of. This is not to say that the songs lacking a rock sound are unimpressive. ‘Darling,’ a stripped-down, acoustic lullaby for Halsey’s new-born Ender uses beautiful lyricism like ‘I’ll kidnap all the stars and I will keep them in your eyes/I’ll wrap them up in velvet twine/And hang ’em from a fishin’ line.’ The promise to their child shows the fragility of love but also Halsey’s refusal to be broken by it in this bittersweet, folksy song. ‘1121’ similarly explores themes of motherhood, as the title commemorates the day (November 21st) Halsey found out they were pregnant. The heart-breaking bridge ‘Please don’t leave (I’m runnin’ out of time to tell you)/ Don’t leave me in the shape you left me’ pleads for permeance, after repeated miscarriages. Halsey has lost themselves physically and emotionally for their child; the body dysmorphia and connotations of body horrors of pregnancy are displayed.

There is an abrupt change from a lullaby to the punk-rock ‘Honey’ that has been lauded as a gay anthem. Halsey crooning ‘She was sweet like honey/But all I can taste is the blood in my mouth/And the bitterness in goodbye’ highlights Halsey’s bisexuality, and the idea of the dangerous woman. The heavily repeated chorus reflects the manic nature of Halsey’s bipolar. ‘Whispers’ also acknowledges Halsey’s bipolar and inner conflict, though this is less through the guise of the wild woman and more the need for ‘love,’ manifesting itself as a desire for sex. Concluding with a refusal to end with self-sabotage, Halsey seems to want to heal. From self-sabotage to daddy issues, to mental illness and the pressure of social media, this song truly covers it all.

Oscillating between self- doubt and self-worship, the poppy beat and synthesisers invites you to sing along

The lead single ‘I Am Not a Woman, I’m A God’ is not the girl power anthem one would expect from the title. It conveys the horror show of pregnancy, instead of the usual maternal love and gratitude. Halsey is ‘not a woman, I’m a God/I am not a martyr, I’m a problem/I am not a legend, I’m a fraud.’ They insist on the dichotomies, with the almost maniacal chorus that speaks on the complexities of a woman. The music video completes this visually as Halsey is a cold ruler on a throne, the fleeing, pregnant woman in white, and the powerful goddess. Oscillating between self- doubt and self-worship, the poppy beat and synthesisers invites you to sing along.

Certain other songs are more forgettable like ‘The Lighthouse,’ a slow-paced, rock song sounding more like past Halsey, with less of the strong instrumentals present in other songs. The closing track on the standard album ‘Ya’aburnee’ ends an album that is based on a deep inability to love with a hopeful, if not fragile celebration of love, both for their partner and their child. With perhaps the most poetic lyricism of the album, Halsey sings ‘I think we could live forever/In each other’s faces ’cause I’ll/Always see my youth in you/And if we don’t live forever/Maybe one day, we’ll trade place/Darling, you will bury me.’ With only a stripped-down, guitar as backing music, Halsey’s overwhelmingly mortal love sees a refusal to be broken , and instead succumb to love.

This moody, feminist album is not for the faint of heart

The deluxe version of If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power adds two tracks ‘Nightmare’ (and the reprise), and ‘People Disappear Here.’ ‘Nightmare’ is a reprise of the 2019 track as an emo-punk, feminist war anthem. With pure fury, Halsey is no victim, instead becoming the aggressor as they have ‘Stared in the mirror and punched it to shatters/ Collected the pieces and picked out a dagger.’ The jazzy, moody sound of Halsey’s’ closing track ‘People Disappear Here’ was inspired by a bout of sleep paralysis and this sound is the perfect closing track as it concludes an album of self-doubt and inability to love.

This moody, feminist album is not for the faint of heart. Branching out of the pop sounds that made them famous, Halsey keeps true to their story-telling and beautiful lyricism but adds a rock, emo sound as she is tired of the lies the media have told about them, about motherhood, about woman. This album is perfect for fans of Taylor Swift who desire a darker mood, for fans of tv show ‘Fleabag’ and for those who have a fear of love and refuse to let it claim them.