Album Review: Manic | Halsey

This is Album #2/20 that I listened to for my 2020 challenge. I listened to this album 8 times for my review.

Here are some quick stats about Manic by Halsey:

• Album #3

• Released January 17, 2020 (Last album release 2017)

• Album length: 47:36, 16 tracks

• Peaked at #2 on US Billboard 200 (6 weeks on chart so far)

• Genre: Electropop, hip hop (according to Wikipedia, but I strongly disagree with this. I'd say this is 100% Pop...)

• Metacritic score: 80/100

It took me a few listens to get into this album. At first it sounded too basic to me. Parts of i are pretty basic I think, but it was pretty enjoyable by the end. Not all albums have to be creative masterpieces. Sometimes you just need some easy, catchy tidbits.

Here's the track list. A star means it's one of my favorites. Bold means I don't like it. Unformatted songs mean I thought they were fine.

1. Ashley

2. Clementine

3. Graveyard

4. You Should Be Sad*

5. Forever...(Is A Long Time)

6. Dominic's Interlude (feat. Dominic Fike)*

7. I Hate Everybody*

8. 3AM*

9. Without Me

10. Finally // Beautiful Stranger*

11. Alanis' Interlude (feat. Alanis Morissette)

12. Killing Boys

13. Suga's Interlude (feat. Suga of BTS)

14. More

15. Still Learning

16. 929

I liked that some of the songs had varying genres. For example, "You Should Be Sad" has a little bit of country influence, "3AM" is kinda 2000s punk rock. It was cool and interesting and I liked it. I really didn't like "Clementine." This one got too repetitive and annoying to me. I didn't like "929" because it was doing that thing where they try to fit too many syllables in, and it doesn't work, and they're going for this kind of stream of consciousness, talky vibe, but it just feels so lazy to me.

Again, I've had a little bit of hesitance with Halsey because I haven't thought that she had the best voice. In some of these songs, her voice does shine. Like in "Finally // Beautiful Stranger", an acoustic song. But others like "Without You" are so overly autotuned, which just makes me question whyyyy. Halsey is listed as a writer on every song on the album, but that is along with 2-7 other writers as well. As I've said before, I don't really give much credit to the main artist when there are that many other writers doing the majority of the work (I assume).

This album definitely grew on me. There are quite a few songs that I have added to my personal playlist. I will probably occasionally listen to this album in the future. I would give this a 6/10 rating.

Have you listened to this album? Let me know your thoughts down below!