Hopeless Fountain Kingdom has always seemed to me like an album that was full of ideas, but lacks the right execution to pull it all together. Say what you want about Badlands, that album feels consistent sonically. Many of the songs on that album are built from the same dark indie-pop mould, and I feel like perhaps that works in that album’s favour.

On Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, Halsey attempts to diversify her sound with some mixed results. The album definitely more aimed at sound of ... read more

Yep, I’m a Halsey fan. Not something I really wanted to admit, but yeah, I’ve been following her career with great interest since I first heard about her in 2015.

Looking at it from an analytical perspective, Halsey’s debut album Badlands has many flaws. I will not deny that. Most obviously, the album is certainly a product of its time - a post-Pure Heroine era which gave rise to a moodier version of pop. Certainly, there are similarities to Lorde’s early work which do ... read more

Selena Gomez releases the first major pop album of 2020 with her third solo effort, Rare. While I can’t say I was ever a big fan of Selena’s music (I felt her musical peers were making much more interesting music), her 2017 single “Bad Liar” did pique my interest for a moment. With its minimal instrumental, references to the Battle of Troy and sample of the bassline from Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer”, I had to believe that Selena was starting to show ... read more

On Paint, Holy Holy expands their sound with more prominent usage of drum machines (“That Message”) and shimmering new wave synths on tracks such as “True Lovers” and “Send My Regards”. Thought the guitar work on this album not too different from their debut, it is drenched in reverb and slightly less prominent, perhaps foreshadowing the shift away from guitars the band would pursue with their following album. The result is a modernised update of 80’s ... read more