Born in New Jersey, Ashley Frangipane always pinned herself as a New Yorker rather than a Jersey girl. Her many references to cities of the state come from her experiences of hanging out there so much as a teenager, and her stage name Halsey is not only an anagram of her name, but is also a street in Brooklyn that she frequented often. Relatively new to the music scene Halsey posted her song ‘Ghost’ to SoundCloud in 2014, gaining herself lots of attention. She soon signed with Astralwerks and shortly after released her indie pop debut EP Room 93 which brings us the haunting and mesmerising song ‘Is There Somewhere’.
This raw and beautifully dark song can best be interpreted as someone who is falling in love and not wanting to, or rather, not wanting to admit it. Although the message may not come through clearly to all listeners, the final lines of the song, “I’m sorry but I fell in love tonight / I didn’t mean to fall in love tonight / You’re looking like you fell in love tonight / Could we pretend that we’re in love?”, say it all.
Halsey can best be compared to indie pop icons such as Lorde and Lana Del Ray as a result of her gloomy sound and lyrics, as well as her vocal strength. Her debut album Badlands, which she has described as an, “angry female album”, will be released on August 28th, 2015. After hearing ‘Is There Somewhere’, Badlands promises an intriguing and emotional listen. Besides, who doesn’t want to listen to an angry female album?
Words by Sophie V.