Halsey didn’t impress me much when I first heard her. In fact, I pretty much rolled my eyes listening to her breakthrough single, “New Americana,” because I thought the chorus lyric about being “high on legal marijuana” was just a bit too… manipulative? It seemed to beg for young listeners to sing/chant along defiantly.
“Castle” hit me differently, though. This was a song that felt like it deserved a place among the dark new anthems from artists like Lorde and Lana Del Ray. I dug into her debut album, Badlands, and found that, as often happens, the first hit single was actually one of the weaker tracks. I still don’t care for “New Americana,” but it doesn’t stop me from recommending the album.
What I’m still trying to come to terms with is the fact that my teenage daughter loves the album. She has it on vinyl, in fact. I’m trying to resist the feeling that dads should not be listening to any artist whose t-shirts are sold at Hot Topic.
But anyway…
It’s time to see if Halsey can avoid the sophomore slump as she prepares to release her second album, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, on June 23. There’s a 13 track standard edition of the album, but of course, you’ll want the 16 track deluxe version. Here’s the track list:
01. The Prologue
02. 100 Letters
03. Eyes Closed
04. Heaven In Hiding
05. Alone
06. Now Or Never
07. Sorry
08. Good Mourning
09. Lie (Ft. Quavo)
10. Walls Could Talk
11. Bad At Love
12. Don’t Play
13. Strangers (Ft.Lauren Jauregui)
14. Angel On Fire
15. Devil In Me
16. Hopeless (Ft.Cashmere Cat)
As with Badlands, there is also a Target special edition version of Hopeless Fountain Kingdom that includes three exclusive bonus tracks. It’s not clear if the Target version will be supplementing the 16 track deluxe edition of the album or the 13 track standard edition. Most likely, the Target edition will be 19 tracks, so for maximum Halsey, you may want to plan your shopping accordingly.
Enjoy the epic video for the first single, “Now Or Never”:
