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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
‘If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power’ is Halsey’s definitive artistic breakthrough.
100
Halsey has created the strongest and most focused album in her catalog and is more themselves than ever before. It's a beautiful, twisted, transformative journey in all senses of the word. And one worth all the praise it is sure to garner.
90
For this record, the pop star has teamed up with Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to create an album of industrial, grunge and goth rock that details Halsey’s experience of pregnancy.
90
In a bold and unexpected move, Halsey seizes their artistic crown on the creative triumph If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power.
82
If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power is a tour-de-force in the face of an ever-changing pop scene.
80
With art this bold and ambitious, Halsey doesn’t really have to choose between love and power: they deserve both.
80
By bringing a darker, racketier attitude to a major label pop, Halsey follows in the footsteps of artists P!nk and Grimes.
80
If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power is the boldest sonic statement yet from an artist who has never shied away from airing their grievances in public.
80
Sure, it’s packing some infectious, radio-ready choruses, but there is so much more to unpack, with each listen peeling back layers of heartache but also dexterity and adventure, and much-needed sense of danger that their peers are lacking.
80
With production from Nine Inch Nails and featuring Dave Grohl, the artist's fourth album feels like a defiant artistic statement of their singular talent.
80
It shows both a significant development in sound as well as a genuinely empowering beating heart that imparts Halsey's values with impressive ease—and power.
80
A world of distortion and contradiction, blood and venom, ‘If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power’ is a singular statement, one of extreme power.
80
If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power is a theatrical, grandiose listening experience that also acts as a statement of intent and identity for the artist.
70
Halsey’s If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power thrillingly homes in on notions of self and identity.
70
The adventurous pop star’s fourth album is a fascinating, if at times overwrought, collaboration with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
70
If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power contains enough magic to be infectious, an ambitious work by an immensely gifted artist who is continuing to explore aesthetic possibilities.
70
Halsey delivers on the promise of having Reznor and Ross involved in a musical sense, as If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power is imbued with a palpable sense of drama in how its menacing arrangements move effortlessly around their needs, desires, and insecurities.
70
It’s probably the most recklessly ambitious pop album of the year besides Donda, and for sure one of the catchiest.
70
Whilst the efforts have been made however, it still feels like an album of two halves put together. If the trio had sat in one room for the whole experience -crafting the album from nothing until completion – it could really represent the sound it needed to achieve.
70
Produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Halsey’s spectral fourth album confronts the thrill and terror of getting what you want. It’s their strongest work to date.
60
The singer-songwriter contemplates new motherhood on this intriguing fourth album.
60
Halsey and Reznor don't always mesh or produce fireworks together, but If I Can't Have Love is still Halsey's strongest album yet.
As a woman's life changes with the arrival of a child, the album If I Can't Have Love I Want Power is the epitome of Halsey's significant evolution. The author immerses us in a poignant and heartbreaking experience in the midst of motherhood
One thing is undeniable, Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, a.k.a Halsey, never has her/they tongue in her/they pocket, defying any social taboo. The New Jersey native has established herself as one of the most popular artists of the second half of the last ... read more
After making two of the more eyeroll worthy albums of the 2010’s, Halsey’s 2020 album “Manic” showed significant improvement even though the final result was still less than great. Now with the release of her fourth album, “If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power”, I think this is a further progression into their artistry, even though I still think there are a bunch of things she could improve on.
Produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch ... read more
Forgetting the past, finding love and motherhood
When it comes to music and rating albums and other projects, one of the things i care about is the musician's personality, the amount of controversy they've had and either if they have narcissistic behavior or not, and halsey is one of the artists who gets the full score for her personality, a lovely, beautiful and admirable human being who (i think) everyone loves. But when it comes to other things (lyrics, melodies, production and etc...) ... read more
A step in the right direction for Halsey. NIN's production and chord work creates a solid foundation for her conceptual lyrics to stand on top of.
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Track List
| 1 | The Tradition 3:46 | 81 |
| 2 | Bells in Santa Fe 3:37 | 83 |
| 3 | Easier than Lying 3:26 | 86 |
| 4 | Lilith 2:47 | 77 |
| 5 | Girl is a Gun 2:26 | 81 |
| 6 | You asked for this 4:25 | 80 |
| 7 | Darling 3:02 | 74 |
| 8 | 1121 2:42 | 81 |
| 9 | honey 2:53 | 82 |
| 10 | Whispers 3:11 | 77 |
| 11 | I am not a woman, I'm a god 2:56 | 85 |
| 12 | The Lighthouse 4:33 | 77 |
| 13 | Ya'aburnee 3:08 | 76 |
Total Length: 42 minutes
Year End Lists
| #5 | / | People |
| #6 | / | Billboard |
| #8 | / | NME |
| #8 | / | The Young Folks |
| #9 | / | Kerrang! |
| #9 | / | Variety: Chris Willman |
| #10 | / | Vulture |
| #11 | / | Albumism |
| #12 | / | Good Morning America |
| #15 | / | The Line of Best Fit |
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2mo
people disappear here deserved to be on the official tracklist, its honestly better than most of these songs (not to say their bad but pdh is just so damn good)
Added on: June 28, 2021