Halsey: If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power [CAPITOL]

Why you'll love it

This Capitol LP comes in a gatefold jacket with a lyric and credits insert, pressed in Germany. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, went gold in the US and was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the Grammys.

This edition

• Gatefold jacket
• Lyric and credits insert
• Pressed in Germany

About the album

After a No. 1 single and three big pop albums, Halsey decided the next move was to write a letter to Nine Inch Nails. She asked Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to produce a concept album about the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth, and they said yes. The result is heavy, cinematic and full of tension, with industrial grit under every pop hook.

It was made long distance, Reznor and Ross in Los Angeles and Halsey singing in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Dave Grohl plays drums on "Honey," Lindsey Buckingham adds guitar to "Darling," and "I Am Not a Woman, I'm a God" became the big single. "Easier Than Lying" goes full rock, "Lilith" and "You Asked for This" mix punk snarl with synth menace, and "The Tradition" opens things on a hushed, haunted note. Colin Tilley directed a companion film that played in IMAX cinemas.

It landed near the top of plenty of best-of-2021 lists and stands as the boldest left turn of her career. She told Reznor and Ross she'd been borrowing from them for years; they responded by producing the album, which is a more generous reaction than most of us get for borrowing a lawnmower.

Also at Kops: more Halsey on vinyl · browse Pop

Tracklist

Listen

On Capitol (cat# B003394801), the 2021 album.