Manic
| Halsey
Manic
Manic (sometimes stylized in all caps) is the third studio album by American singer Halsey. It was released on January 17, 2020 through Capitol Records. It features guest appearances by Dominic Fike, Alanis Morissette, and Suga of BTS and samples of Kate Winslet, John Mayer, Amanda Seyfried, and Megan Fox.-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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EW
Over 16 tracks, Manic is a chaotic amalgamation of self-analysis, rage, depression, ecstasy, and growth that sees its creator managing the messiness of fame while trying to stay true to herself.
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The Line of Best Fit
Manic is Halsey’s most complete work to date
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Rolling Stone
Halsey’s ‘Manic’ Is a Portrait of the Artist as a Young Mess On her third album, the singer explores her twentysomething angst and chases her bliss.
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NME
‘Manic’ review: stream-of-consciousness musings on family, love, and fame Halsey has always kept her true personality partially obscured in her music. Here, though, she invites us into the world of Ashley Frangipane
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The Irish Times
In an attempt to express herself on her third album, Halsey (née Ashley Frangipane) borrows a personality from Kate Winslet’s character Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to drive a point home. Naming a song after her and shoehorning a quote from the movie – “I’m just a f**ked-up girl who’s looking for my own peace of mind. Don’t assign me yours” – into the opening track Ashley, she paradoxically tries to get personal while playing the role of somebody else. And it sort of works.
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AllMusic
The artiest, wobbliest songs start the record, followed by her saddest and starkest ballads, so it takes a while before it settles into its comfortable groove of adolescent angst doubling as AAA crossover pop. Such distinctions would be lost on the playlists individual tracks may later call home, but assembled in this fashion as a proper album, Manic showcases Halsey at her nerviest and at her best.
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Stereogum
Halsey Is Her Generation’s Most Successful Pop Chameleon Thematically, the album delves into Halsey’s experience with bipolar disorder, the condition formerly known as manic depression.
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nj.com
Halsey’s new album ‘Manic’ is a big, beautiful mess . . . the 16-track album is far and away the 25-year-old artist’s most intimate record to date.
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MSN
Halsey's Manic is what happens when the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is finally given agency over her own story; it's messy, it's complicated, it's melodramatic. And it's also beautiful.
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Global News
Unlike Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, Manic is not a concept record. There’s no Romeo & Juliet-inspired story encasing her pain and angst, it’s raw through and through, front-to-back, leaving nothing to cover up Halsey in possibly her most vulnerable state.
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The Interns
It’s an intimate, honest album that’s largely bereft of typical hit material. . . . . It establishes her as an artist who has found her own singular lane and while it seems she’s got more exploring to do it’s an exciting first step.
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CelebMix
On her third studio album, Halsey cements her status as one of pop’s leading lights.
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Forbes
Halsey just delivered the second blockbuster pop album of 2020 with Manic, . . . .
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Popdust
Halsey's new album might be called Manic, but though its lyrics often reference the symptoms of mania in bipolar disorder—impulsivity, hyper-social behavior, and intense euphoria—it sounds calculated and weary, like someone taking stock in the midst of a comedown, looking over the scars and broken glass from last night's party.
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Riff Magazine
It is a collection of regrets and wounds, of hopes and dreams as well. There’s strength to be found in vulnerability, even with all the angst that comes with being a 20-something in this world, and on her latest album, Halsey stands stronger than we’ve ever seen her.
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The Guardian
Her openness and lyrical specificity make listening to the 25-year-old’s dramatic third album feel like reading someone else’s diary.
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The World News
As on her earlier records, Halsey can feel like something of a phantom on “Manic,” even when her writing is as vivid as it is in “Graveyard,” . . . . But her singing, with its pleading tone and its slightly raspy edges, is growing more expressive. If you’re still not sure where she wants to go, you can tell how badly she wants to get there.
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Second Society Report
The album, which consists of 16 tracks, samples a variety of musical styles- ranging from pop to country to stream of consciousness poetry. “Manic” is an open and honest look into Halsey’s life- both personal and professional.
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Album of the Year
Manic is no Charli, Pang or Magdalene. But this album has its own goal - to set out and map out Halsey’s state of mind at this moment of her life - and for the most part, I think it does so quite well.
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Pitchfork
Halsey’s third album flips lonely self-awareness into a kind of strength. But some of its most compelling moments are overpowered by the tedium of modern pop.
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The Wall Street Journal
As “Manic” zigzags among genres it uses emotional torment as fuel, with songs painting Ms. Frangipane as messy and flawed but resilient.
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Consequence of Sound
Halsey brings us through every emotion on the human spectrum– with dazzling sounds of regret, sadness, anger, and love. The album finds a way to weave together multiple emotions, sounds, and genres and shows off Frangipane’s versatility as an artist while still acting as an incredibly cohesive and seamless album. She explores more ideas in one album than many do in their entire career. Do not underestimate Halsey.
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Metacritic
The third full-length release for the alternative pop artist features guest appearances Dominic Fike, Alanis Morissette and BTS' Suga.
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Billboard
The 16-track album features a self-titled song "Ashley," as well as three "interludes," which appear to be collaborations with Florida singer Dominic Fike ("Dominic's Interlude"), singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette ("Alanis' Interlude") and South Korean rapper Suga of BTS ("Suga's Interlude").
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MTV
Manic capitalizes on Halsey's chameleonic approach to pop music, while delving deep into her relationships, her experience with bipolar disorder, and her constant toggle between confidence and self-doubt.
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Cheatsheet
Halsey released her newest album Manic on Jan. 17, 2020. Her third studio album has achieved critical acclaim. Halsey’s Manic is also beloved by fans for its heartfelt lyrics detailing the singer’s life.
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Iowa State Daily
The 16 track album comes to just under 48 minutes long, with six singles being released before its full release, featuring “Without Me,” which ended up being the lead single. The biggest thing this album symbolizes is growth. “Manic” is Halsey’s third studio album.
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Altpress
This album truly feels like it’s so meaningful to her. And it’s probably because of all the hype she’s been building leading up to it.
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Erie Reader
Halsey's new album draws from multiple genres and influences, yet struggles to maintain a real identity.
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Daily Campus
One of the most surprising parts of “Manic” is how lowkey the instrumentals are. Halsey’s music is usually upbeat and used in commercials. Songs like “SUGA’s Interlude” featuring SUGA from BTS is an example of this. The themes of regret and fame are not waved in front of your face; rather, they’re reflections of what Halsey and SUGA have been through in their careers as superstars.
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Reveille
Halsey has always been great at telling stories with her music, and in this album, her most personal and real one yet, she tells the story of her life with songs that may very well be some of her best.
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The Atlantic
On Manic, her bipolar disorder is central. But so are other, smaller details about hopes, fears, and romance, all of which she marshals for diorama-like songs. Manic evokes a range of women who have aired inner conflagrations while trying to grapple with society’s tendency to label honest women as crazy.
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The Heights
Manic, Halsey’s third studio album, certainly lives up to its name, taking listeners on an emotional roller coaster that chronicles Halsey’s past romances, strained relationships, and soul-searching efforts. The 16-track album gets better as it goes along, but it maintains that classic Halsey sound throughout, always balancing on the line between emotional and hysterical, her lyrics poetic yet honest.
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The Chronicle
Starting “Manic” with a song named after herself and embedding intimate touches throughout, it’s clear that Halsey has delivered on this idea, providing a heartfelt and personal window into her own life.
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Us Magazine
Halsey Opens in a new Window.recently dropped her Manic album and the cover art — featuring the songstress rocking a glimmering blue eye — is just as good as her hit songs.
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Daily Emerald
The 16-track album dives into the singer’s emotional past, from moments of growth to introspective epiphanies. This is her first album cover to include her portrait, perhaps indicative of how deeply Halsey dives into past trials and tribulations. The album also includes collaborations with SUGA from BTS, Alanis Morisette and Dominic Fike, as well as several genres of music.
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Slant Magazine
The singer’s refusal to pick a lane is what makes the album her most compelling effort to date. The album’s shifting production style allows Halsey the space to inhabit different parts of her personality and even invite them into conversation with one another.
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The Post Athens
Radio friendliness wasn’t even an afterthought for Halsey on Manic. Every song was crafted to depict the tumultuous headspace she lives with daily, and she doesn’t hold back with the candid lyrics even for a second.
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E News
Halsey's new album Manic is finally out, and it's stacked with celebrity guests. Some are clearly labeled, like her collaborations with Alanis Morissette, SUGA from BTS and Dominic Fike, but the 25-year-old star revealed in a Q&A session with her fans on Twitter that her good pal Mayer makes a small cameo.
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The Harvard Crimson
Out of tension and turbulence, “Manic” forges a fleeting portrait of an artist in metamorphosis: capricious and vulnerable but no less of a creative force.
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Cosmopolitan
There isn’t any explicit information about collaborations, but the list does include “Dominic’s Interlude,” “Alanis’ Interlude,” and “Suga’s Interlude.” Dominic Fike, Alanis Morissette, and BTS are all tagged...so it’s officially safe to freak out now.
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UT Daily Beacon
Manic” is a pop album with electronic, rock and hip-hop influences throughout the record, and it features a variety of artists from the K-pop, indie rock and rap genres respectively.
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Hollywood Life
This new album is Halsey’s raw autobiographical portrait of the artist as a young mess, craving her share of love and tenderness in a hostile world.
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Pop Matters
On her third studio album Manic, Halsey is more sonically interesting than she's ever been before. Manic is a refreshingly intimate portrait of a young woman navigating fame, femininity, and mental illness—among other things. The album never quite settles on one sound, just like Halsey, which makes Manic feel more personal than her previous albums.
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The Observer
"Manic” is packed with 16 tracks, featuring many artists such as Dominic Fike, Alanis Morissette and BTS’s SUGA. Leading up to the album’s launch, a few singles were released, including “Without Me,” “Graveyard,” “You should be sad,” “Finally // beautiful stranger,” “SUGA’s Interlude” and “Clementine,” with the first two songs reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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The Breeze
She takes “Manic” as an opportunity to show her deep and vulnerable parts to her fans, and the results are beautiful. The album is comprised of lyrical ballads that evoke all kinds of emotions one feels in multiple stages of relationships and life. “Manic” is soft and lovely, with slower songs that soothe the heart. There’s a ballad for every feeling of heartbreak or happiness, and Halsey shows her raw emotion, which makes every tune feel genuine.
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Udiscover Music
Manic has already been lavished with critical praise. Halsey’s third studio album, Manic is available now through Capitol Records. It also includes the songs ‘Graveyard’, ‘Clementine’, ‘Finally//Beautiful Stranger’, ‘Suga’s Interlude’, ‘You Should Be Sad’ and her 2018 Billboard Hot 100 number-one single ‘Without Me’. The record also features guest appearances by Dominic Fike, Alanis Morissette, and Suga of BTS and samples of Kate Winslet, John Mayer, Amanda Seyfried, and Megan Fox.
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Ball State Daily
This album was drawn from multiple personal experiences that helped her create a glimpse into her life, some of those experiences being her tumultuous on-again off-again relationship with G-Eazy, her love and appreciation for movies, and accepting her identity being bisexual, biracial, and bipolar. She takes us inside the mind of Ashley Frangipane, not Halsey. She is more honest and raw on this album than on any of her projects in the past. This gives her listeners a front row ticket to the chaotic, lovely, and bustling life that is her reality.
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DU Clarion
“Manic” is reflective and introspective. Listeners journey through Halsey’s quest for understanding and acceptance with her, even as she acknowledges her mistakes.
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Hercampus
Halsey takes a more personal approach on this album through the storytelling in her lyrics. Each song has a personal connection and it is one of the most unique things that an artist can do in the work that they showcase to the rest of the world. The album itself has many different genres and it definitely has something for everyone.
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Rough Trade
Halsey returns with her third album. Halsey continues to push creative boundaries, expanding her influence and impact beyond music.
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The Cowl
The album is an exploration of this manic side of her that is all over the place. The album is a mix of different styles from soft, melancholic pop to country and rock to Korean rap. This album must be heard in its entirety to follow her journey in navigating who she is and her place in the world.
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News Record
Halsey’s third album, “Manic,” is one of those records that should be listened to in order as a continuous piece or else it loses any coherency because of the vast variety of sound and aesthetic.
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Advocate
Halsey's new album, Manic, is a self-liberation from the definitions ascribed to the artist by others.
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The Daily Californian
Halsey’s ‘Manic’ executes self-scrutiny in exploration of musical identity. Halsey’s work on Manic is an explorative look into the artist she’s created. On the album, she doesn’t remain confined to any set persona or genre, reveling instead in the range of her capabilities.
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Hilltop Views
Halsey has proven that she is a modern music mainstay with her third album “Manic.” The album, released on Jan. 17, features 16 songs including collaborations with artists ranging from Alanis Morissette to SUGA and BTS. The album gracefully weaves a narrative of heartbreak, love, courage and growth – subjects that have certainly been at the forefront of the music superstar’s personal life since her last commercial release in 2017.
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The Massachusetts Daily Collegian
The album’s true high points come from its emotional peaks where Halsey’s skill as a lyricist shines. “Manic” is packed with layered writing, variety and a sound unlike any other recent releases — it’s an album with few low points.
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The Reflector
Self-deprivation, the harsh realities and making connections with different artists is what Halsey’s latest album consists of and it’s a bit odd how she managed to fit these themes into a single album. “Manic” is a fitting title for her new album because, while the tunes are chill and varying in style, the lyrics make Halsey seem a bit crazy, but nothing that the younger generations aren’t familiar with; in fact there’s a little bit in the mix for everyone.
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Dancing Astronaut
It’s altogether contrived and reflexive, a complex sonic paradox. This aspect is only a fraction of the contentious character of Manic, which offers the rawest look at Halsey’s inner life to date. The title of Halsey’s project concords with its form. Manic makes frenzied switches between genres and sonic styles.
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Study Breaks
The musician’s latest album is brilliantly and beautifully manic.
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The Daily Nebraskan
Despite the singer’s comments about the album’s heavy discussion of mental illness, the title, “Manic,” a reference to bipolar disorder via its antiquated definition, manic depression, is really the extent of the topic being brought up. The track list finds Halsey moving through a myriad of styles and sounds across the 16-song album. From drum-heavy, electric guitar-laced rock cuts like “3am,” to smooth, intimate ballads over a spacey grand piano on “Forever … (is a long time),” and steel guitar country twang on “Finally // beautiful stranger,” Halsey touches on what feels like as many sonic styles she could. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing.
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Complex
Manic spans 16 tracks, including the previously released singles like “Without Me," "Clementine," "Finally // Beautiful Stranger," and, most recently, "You Should Be Sad." The effort also features contributions from BTS, Suga, Dominic Fike,and Alanis Morissette.
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iHeart Radio
Drawing from the underbellies of loss and love, Halsey laces her 16-track effort with the ageless allure of confessional lyricism that shot the pop star to stardom. Undulating from vulnerable melodies like “Ashley” and “Still Learning” to the get-back tracks “You Should Be Sad” and “Without Me” to the sad and sincere serenades “Clementine” and “Finally // beautiful stranger,” Manic is a bruised, broken-hearted record that remains true to its name with all of its emotional grace. Think millennial skull candy wrapped in cellophane.
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Elite Daily
After one cursory listen of the entire album, it's clear it's her most personal body of work yet. In fact, fans think a lot of the Manic lyrics are about Halsey's exes.
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Popsugar
She wrote most of this album in a manic episode of her bipolar disorder, hence its title. Manic includes new songs such as "Finally // Beautiful Stranger" and "Suga's Interlude," the latter a soulful collaboration with rapper Suga from BTS.
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Much
Manic is out and good God was it worth the wait. It’s a true accomplishment—she creates a candid, introspective concept album painting the picture of her experience with mania and bipolar disorder, but with catchy tracks that are universally relatable. This album is her most mature and ambitious yet, and the songs track her growth as an artist and a person.
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The Fader
Halsey has released her new album, Manic. The follow-up to 2017's Hopeless Fountain Kingdom features the singles “You Should Be Sad,” plus “Without Me,” "Clementine," and “Graveyard.” The album also features interludes with guest artists SUGA of BTS, Alanis Morissette, and Dominic Fike.
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Datebook
We get to see a different side of Halsey with this teaser from her third album, “Manic.” An acoustic-based number with a slight country lilt, “Finally // Beautiful Stranger” puts the singer’s earthy voice to the front. It’s a good indicator of things to come from the artist born Ashley Nicolette Frangipane.
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The Concordian
Manic features other artists like Dominic Fike, Alanis Morissette, SUGA and BTS. Also, despite being an alternative album, it has a nice mix of soft rock, indie pop, and pop.
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Mrschristine
This is a solid album from Halsey, some great songs mixed in with lyrical interludes and some surprising guests. The strength is in the lyrics, with pictures effortlessly conjured in your mind but there’s a sense of chaos throughout the whole thing which tumbles you from the opening track to the final beats.
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The Honeypop
Halsey paints a portrait of herself with Manic. Between getting angry and dreaming of keying her ex boyfriends Ferrari in ‘Killing Boys’, breaking down her walls and falling in love in ‘Finally//Beautiful Stranger’; Halsey shows us that she is not going to live her life for anyone but herself. This is her story, and nobody can take that from her. Manic pushes the idea that we are all human and you don’t need to force yourself to fit into someone else’s mold. This is truly an album that everyone can find some peace in.
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Vulture
Halsey describes her upcoming third album as “hip-hop, rock, country, fucking everything — because it’s so manic.”
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