Written by Jennifer Moglia
Ashley Frangipane’s path to fame was an odd one. In the mid-2010s, she was Tumblr’s indie-pop princess, quickly becoming the blueprint of what every girl wanted to look like, from her signature bright blue hair tied up in space buns to her glittery makeup and pink tennis skirts.
Her debut EP under the name “Halsey”, “Room 93” was released in late 2014 and was one-of-a-kind, a concept record with each song telling a unique story through her alternative pop style. The singer’s first full-length album, 2015’s “Badlands” was a concept record as well, chronicling the adventures of a group of misfit teens in a dystopian world known as the Badlands.
While “Room 93” became a cult classic of sorts for young girls coming of age in the age of the internet, 2015’s “Badlands” saw the beginning of Halsey’s mainstream success, with songs like “Colors” and “New Americana” getting small amounts of radio play. Her unique way of telling stories, with clever, brutally honest lines over instrumentals that made you feel like a rebellious teen regardless of your age, helped her solidify her place among other alt-pop princesses like Lorde, Lana del Rey, and Marina and the Diamonds; she also dropped 2016’s song of the summer, “Closer” with The Chainsmokers.
Frangipane’s reach grew when she released “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom” in 2017, yet another album that told a distinct story. A modern-day re-telling of William Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy “Romeo and Juliet”, her sophomore effort took her to new heights, with singles like “Alone” and “Now or Never” getting constant radio play and collaborations like “Lie” with Quavo of hip-hop group Migos and “Strangers” with Lauren Jauregui formerly of pop girl group Fifth Harmony really putting her on the map.
While these releases, both of which went platinum, were growing Halsey’s fanbase, she was also on a seemingly never-ending touring schedule, meeting fans and playing shows all over the world. With this newfound fame came newfound interactions with other celebrities, including her infamous relationship with rapper Gerald Gillum, better known as G-Eazy.
Many questioned the relationship between the two, seeing as they seemed like an unlikely pair. Things escalated when they released their duet “Him & I” at the end of 2017, a song all about how crazy (and crazy for each other) they each were.
It all came crumbling down over the summer of 2018, when the two split up after Gillum cheated on Frangipane “in front of the entire world, like, a billion times”, according to what Halsey told Rolling Stone. She released a single called “Without Me” about her feelings on the situation in fall 2018, calling it a stand-alone song; little did she know, she was opening up the world of her third studio album “Manic”, and this would be track nine.
“Manic” is unique for multiple reasons; Frangipane, who is no stranger to talking openly about her struggles with mental illness, particularly bipolar disorder, has stated that this is the first album she wrote while experiencing a manic episode. Furthermore, this is the first record of hers that is autobiographical, and not about a fictional world.
This second reason is evident right off the bat on the first track, aptly titled “Ashley.” This song sees the artist looking back on the “Halsey” personality that she has built and the legacy that she will leave behind when this persona dies, complete with a quote from one of her favorite movies, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
The quote at the end of “Ashley” is spoken by a character named Clementine, also the title of the second track on this album, a cathartic, piano-driven, emotional release of a song. Completely stripped down sonically, Frangipane’s vocals range from smooth, silky melodies to unhinged screams as the track progresses, a perfect representation of finally feeling free.
“Graveyard”, the third track on this album and the second single released, describes the inability to leave a toxic relationship in vivid detail, subject matter that Halsey has never shied away from, but that she has never executed this masterfully. Her lyricism is just on-point, painting the picture of being determined to see a relationship through to the end, no matter how detrimental it may be for both parties; the strongest line here is probably “It’s funny how / The warning signs can feel like they’re butterflies”, followed by a sound that can only be described as Frangipane gasping for air, seemingly suffocated by this partner.
Halsey dropped the third and final single off of this album, “You Should Be Sad”, about a week before the full LP came out, the perfect way to hold fans over until they could hear the record in its entirety. This is a classic country breakup song, made special by the artist’s intense vocal delivery and ruthless lyrics.
Doomed relationships are a common theme in this record, further proven by “Forever … (is a long time)”, in which Halsey discusses her fears of self-sabotaging romance and not allowing herself to be happy, brought to life in lyrics like “I cursed the ground for growing green” and “I could never hold a perfect thing and not demolish it / What am I thinking? What does this mean? / How could somebody ever love me?” The instrumentation here is incredible, starting out sounding like a sticky-sweet love song sung by a Disney princess, before modulating from major to minor in a haunting interlude that leads into a shocking ending, complete with harsh glitch sounds and warped vocals.
The first of a few collaborations on this project, “Dominic’s Interlude” is a song that Halsey has said represented brotherly love, and features Dominic Fike repeating the line “Talk to your man / Tell him he got bad news coming” from the previous track, this time sung with a fun-loving enthusiasm rather than dread. The rest of the lyrics seem to describe Halsey over an upbeat instrumental, before transitioning smoothly into a track all about the artist assessing herself, “I Hate Everybody.”
Track seven has a more subdued backing track that turns soaring and powerful by the final sequence, and Frangipane’s vocal delivery does the same thing, growing more confident with each line. This album is all about Ashley Frangipane, not her relationships, and not her insecurities, so it’s fitting that a song about what she doesn’t like about herself ends in the most anthemic of ways.
Next up is “3 AM”, an early fan-favorite that lyrically describes the frantic aftermath of “I Hate Everybody”, pulling musical elements from throughout Halsey’s discography to create a wonderful melting pot of a swinging pop-rock anthem. There are guitars, there’s booming percussion, and her vocal talent is on full display.
“3 AM” ends with a voicemail from singer-songwriter John Mayer, raving about how Halsey’s best song is currently on the radio and will only become even more of a massive hit, congratulating her. It would later be revealed that the song Mayer was referring to in this recording was track nine, “Without Me.”
The first single off of “Manic”, the first song Halsey had released in over a year since “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom” and originally intended to stand on its own, “Without Me” is a heartbreaking, deeply personal look at Frangipane’s breakup with G-Eazy. The lyrics are incredibly real and raw, detailing how much she did for him, only for her to be betrayed in the end; this one is certainly worth listening to if you haven’t already heard it (it did hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100).
Things take a turn on “Finally // beautiful stranger”, the first true love song that Halsey has ever released, about the moment when she released that it was “finally safe for [her] to fall” in love again after being hurt. There’s no punchline, no sad ending, it’s just a pure, heartfelt account of her first meeting with her boyfriend at the time, and it’s a welcome break from the emotional rollercoaster that this album can be.
The second collaboration on this record, “Alanis’ Interlude” features Alanis Morissette, an artist that Halsey credits with helping her feel comfortable with her sexuality as a bisexual woman. The lyrics are very obviously about a relationship between two women, something that isn’t very common in mainstream music, giving Frangipane an opportunity to do for a new generation of young girls what Morissette did for her.
Track twelve, “Killing Boys”, is a fun pop song that gets its title from a deleted scene from the 2009 horror film “Jennifer’s Body”, the track opening with dialogue from the movie. Halsey has described this song as being about feeling so enraged that you pull up to a boy’s house and demand answers from him, heavy on the female empowerment themes that the previous track introduced.
The final collaboration on “Manic”, “SUGA’s Interlude” features Min Yoongi (also known as SUGA) of K-Pop group BTS, who Halsey has worked with in the past. Sonically, this track sounds like a dream, and the two artists’ vocals complement each other perfectly, singing about falling in and out of love with music.
“More” has been interpreted in a variety of ways, from being a letter from Frangipane to her younger self to Halsey longing for her unborn child who she lost in a miscarriage due to her battle with endometriosis; the artist has stated that this is a love song, but not for a romantic partner, for “someone in the universe who doesn’t exist yet, but will one day.” No matter what you think this track is about or who you think it’s for, it’s one of the strongest on the album, jam-packed with emotion; Halsey has called it the most special and personal song on the record, with tons of small details like the fading instrumental at the end meant to sound like it’s coming from the outside of a womb.
Things pick up once more before the closing track on “Still Learning”, an upbeat pop song about growing towards self-love and acceptance, something that can be difficult even after achieving success. The song ends with the soft sounds of a piano before “929” begins.
The final track on “Manic”, “929” was my favorite song after my first few listens back in January 2020. It begins with a recording of Frangipane trying to convince her producer that she was born at 9:29 AM on September 29th, a claim that he doubts before asking to see her birth certificate; by the end of the song, Halsey finds the document and realizes that she has been lying this entire time, and she was really born at 9:26.
While the “9:29 on 9/29” story bookends this song perfectly, the rest of the track chronicles Ashley Frangipane’s first five years of her 20s; she journeys through memory loss, new locations, nicotine withdrawals, being taken advantage of for her body or her fame, feeling disconnected from the “Halsey” personality, feeling isolated and unneeded, dating drug addicts, failed relationships (both romantic and within her family), meeting fans, and realizing that maybe she doesn’t have it all figured out yet, and that’s okay. It’s insanely personal, reading like a diary entry more than a song, and what amazes me is that it was nearly entirely improvised, “a stream of consciousness ranting confessional...almost like a freestyle in the booth” according to Frangipane.
Despite all of the faults that she admits on the closer, Halsey forgives herself and acknowledges that she is still learning and growing, something that she’s completely fine with. This is, at its crux, what “Manic” is all about.
For fans who have been following Halsey since she had long blue hair and wore flannels and backward baseball caps singing “Ghost” on Soundcloud, and also for those who just discovered her when they heard “Without Me” on the radio in 2019, “Manic” is a testament to growth, for both Ashley Frangipane and for everyone in the world who wants to evolve and change for the better. She grows musically, spanning nearly every genre in the book, she grows lyrically, singing some of her most vulnerable lines yet, and it’s evident that she grew as a person while creating this masterpiece, her first record about herself, not about a character she created.
Those original fans may always prefer the starry-eyed wonder of “Room 93”, and more casual listeners may go back to danceable singles like “Closer”, but “Manic” will forever be the project that took Halsey from an indie-pop darling to a versatile powerhouse, a complete superstar of an artist and a musician. So, happy first birthday, “Manic”; everyone should be listening to you, and we can all learn a thing or two from you.
“Manic” along with Halsey’s entire discography is available to stream wherever you listen to music, and you can support Halsey by following her on Twitter @Halsey and picking up some merch via her online store. For more rewind reviews and other music coverage, you can follow us on Twitter @lgndsoftmrw.
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