Good, Great or Garbage: Halsey's "If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power"
Welcome back, dear listeners! If it's Friday, that means it's time for another episode of the show that talks about stuff on purpose! And this week, we're talking about 2021's "If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power", the incendiary magnum opus from Halsey, with a little help from producers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (AKA NINE INCH NAILS). A lot of very important voices have already weighed in regarding this truly ambitious album, but the world doesn't know our opinions yet, and that just won't do. So we're sharing our two cents in this frank discussion that touches on topics that some might find triggering, so listen at your own discretion.
Does "If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power" belong in the TRAPPO Essentials Can(n)on? Is it one of the single greatest musical achievements of the 21st Century thus far? Or does it belong in a landfill? You'll have to tune in to find out. Either listen below, or find us on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Pocket Casts or Spotify, so choose your own adventure and join us on this amazing journey.
(Spoiler alert: this album does not belong in a landfill.)
Join the conversation! Leave a comment below telling us what you think about "If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power"! Suggest topics for future episodes! Tell us what you had for dinner last night! We don't care, really, because we just love hearing from you! And if you're feeling more verbose and really want to spill your guts, you can always send us an email (trapposhow@gmail.com) and we will read your feedback on a future installment of TRAPPO's Mail Bag! And for the complete experience, don't forget to check out our official Instagram feed!
Just a reminder that nominations for the B-52's discussion page are now closed, and we are now compiling all your suggestions and will soon record and release TRAPPO's official listener curated B-52's mixtape episode in the near future! However, voting for The Spine Of Night's potential inclusion in the TRAPPO Essentials Can(n)on is open until March 10th, so if you have any thoughts on the film and would like to share them, be sure to head on over to that page HERE and leave a comment. Aside from that, thanks so much for continuing to listen to the show, thanks for all of your feedback thus far, and enjoy your weekend!
I'm a huge fan of this record. It's an emotional roller coaster that leaves me feeling elated, broken and appreciative every time I listen to it. I do have to take issue with the constant praise of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross at the expense of Halsey, however. At times it feels like you're giving the two men all of the credit when they were merely helping bring Halsey's vision to life. That's a bit problematic when the subject of the album is purely from a feminine perspective. Championing an album that tells such heart-wrenching and beautiful stories all about the horrors and wonders of womanhood, then giving so much credit to a pair of men for bringing that record to life might not be the best look. Sure, their work helped bring "If I Can't Have Love I Want Power" to life, but Halsey's was the guiding hand that created this masterwork, and that shouldn't be forgotten or minimized.
ReplyDeleteI also don't know how good these tracks would sound without lyrics since they were all crafted with the "verse-chorus-verse" lyrical structure in mind. The stuff on all the NIN "Ghosts" collections was made without those structures in mind, and that allows the music to flow in all sorts of different directions. These songs might be interesting to listen to without lyrics once as an experiment, but they wouldn't be as satisfying since the overall structure of the songs would still be evident. You'd be hearing the lyrics in your head as the songs ebb and flow with now-missing words guiding their structure.
Good episode overall, though. And don't sleep on Halsey's earlier work. The cleverness and storytelling is in her other stuff, just with different beats attached. Don't just wait for what's next. Go back and listen to the rest of Halsey's catalogue. You might find more to enjoy there.
"If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power" is a work of art, an album about a woman working through some serious shit and coming out on the other side of this journey a truly changed individual. It has my respect for that alone, but the music is just on another level. It reminds me of another record that I think is a work of art, one that's working through a few similar themes but also a whole host of other baggage the artist has been carrying around her whole life, and she uses her music to exorcise these demons in an attempt to move on with her life a stronger person. The artist is King Woman and the album is "Celestial Blues".
ReplyDeleteKing Woman, AKA Kristina Esfandiari, was raised in a devout Charismatic Christian household, and these experiences did some damage. As an adult, she's been using her music through various bands with various names as an outlet to process some of her traumatic past, and "Celestial Blues" is the culmination of this process, with Esfandiari casting herself as Lucifer incarnate, turning away from the light of an uncaring God to build a new life for herself as a fallen angel, a fitting metaphor for severing her ties from a fundamentalist and even abusive family. It's powerful music, Filled with rage and conflict and catharsis, self-destruction and liberation, it's a work I would absolutely hold in the same regard as Halsey's masterpiece.
The album's good, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it great, or a masterpiece. A lot of the time I feel like the music by Trent Reznor is outshining the vocals, or maybe it's just more engaging than the vocals and I'd rather just be listening to the music by itself. It's tackling some pretty heavy themes and I appreciate that, but most of it doesn't hit me as deeply as I guess I was expecting it to. Maybe it's because I am a man and don't have this perspective, but I'm not sure. And when Halsey sings "there is a light house in the middle of the deep end", that just sounds stupid. Think about it. Does that sound like a focused, well thought-out line? No. It doesn't. She's got a lot of talent, but I don't know if this is as transcendent as so many people seem to claim it is. I know I'm probably in the minority on this one, but that's my opinion. The episode did get me thinking about the music more, and even to appreciate it more than I previously did, so I'll give you that. Before I listened, I was at about a 5. After, I'm at maybe a 7. Solid stuff, just not top-tier.
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