hey everybody my name is ixi i'm going
to be listening to and sort of analyzing
and reviewing the new halsey album that
was produced by trent rezner and atticus
ross came out yesterday
i have no idea what to expect i don't
know anything about halsey so i'm going
into this with a completely open mind
let's get started first track is called
the tradition
sounded like hurt
not anymore
[Music]
leaving hope kind of base right there
i really liked that song
i think it's like kind of nice hook i
like her voice
it definitely sounds like 90 channels
produced it to me
the piano part is
just got some of those hallmark trent
resner
sounds first of all the very opening
arpeggio is
essentially the first three notes of the
hurt chord
[Music]
so
i mean immediately it sounds like trent
but then it quickly resolves up so this
is like the flat 5 to the
5.
that right there even though i wasn't
playing like all the notes is a very
trend thing to do i love that chord
progression you can hear this chord
progression in this isn't the place also
the lovers
and maybe a few others the next song is
bells in santa fe
[Music]
that was beautiful i really really like
that noticing that there haven't been
any drums yet there was such a good lilt
to that first song in 6 8 and this one
just is really propelled forward by the
synths i loved the synth work in this
song
um
just a really cool sound the synth
sounded like it it was a little bit
organic you know had this like
terrible impression love this line it
just really took it to the to the next
like 90s nails level of this
[Music]
mixolydian flat six i feel like that
that major third
like it's almost like for a minute i
forgot what i was listening to and i
wasn't expecting that note and then
because it just sounds like the song is
in a minor and then when that note comes
just like it's like a hallmark
sound of trent reznor i would say
specifically when that note came in it
was like this warm wave of familiarity
washed over me it was like
oh i didn't even know i needed that you
know and it clashed with her voice and
that's something that like a lot of pop
music avoids but it's something that
trent rezner welcomes at least it seems
that way in his music so i'm gonna
listen to the end of bells in santa fe
again so that we can get into the next
track easier than lying the right way
this must be one of the weird choices
that they were talking about on that
interview like make all the weird
choices trent and atticus make all the
weird choices
i don't think i've ever heard nine
chanel's song with this kind of groove
a sharp and then
and then
[Music]
it sounds more like some sort of like
chromatic
motion which is something i'm learning
so much about with many chanel's music
um yeah interesting it's like very
up-tempo
uh i liked the like sort of slap back
you know
reverb or delay or whatever
with the with the rim shots i guess or
what is it called drummers when you
you know it was cool it was driving she
kind of screaming you know it fit it was
cool yeah i like that i like i've liked
all of it so far
well well well when it comes to the
first one
oh it's so catchy
[Music]
that i think that is solid track
it's very short unfortunately i really
liked it really flows you know and she's
kind of keeping her melody sort of
simple and sort of and then that
baseline
i mean i couldn't even really tell where
our tunnel center was or like what key
we're in or it's just i don't know it
felt so self-contained
and then in the chorus then things get a
little more structured
timing and harmonically um but the build
up to that was always so exciting i
can't remember exactly what she was
saying but just like the her words just
started like flying quicker and quicker
i don't know i feel like it really
matched the groove you know like it was
it was she's singing she's not rapping
but there was a flow to her singing that
reminded me a little bit of like
freestyle rapping don't throw vegetables
at me i don't know if that's a proper
uh observation but that's how it felt
that hook for the chorus was so
great um i love the way she's like uh
they're like switching up to the
falsetto and
[Music]
with like these different chords
underneath just like that's
when pop is done right i feel like
that's that's a mechanism that's taken
advantage of is taking a great hook and
changing the harmonic context to create
new points of tension and resolution
with every repetition giving it a new
life giving it new meaning uh that
ending part actually got to me i teared
up a little bit where
they're singing with um like these sort
of vocoder harmonies down below it was
just supremely beautiful and like almost
holy sounding to me and i just i don't
know what they were saying i just felt
overcome so that was beautiful i will
listen to that again and it looks like
it bleeds into the next track which is
called girl as a gun
[Music]
two things before i forget one
i haven't heard a single track yet that
i would consider like weak
i think these all
are good songs they all sound well
produced they all sound like really good
interesting smart choices were made they
all have
i think memorable
moments memorable melodies they stick
with you
me at least and yeah like i would listen
to all five of these again and i will
this song it sounds like you could you
could kind of imagine it being like
produced like
a more traditional pop song like i can
hear that when i just listen to her
melody
but then it's got this very
different kind of production underneath
it
it makes it more
interesting there's always something
interesting happening but it's not too
much
it's just a really good balance of
supporting what they're saying you know
the message the feeling without
overpowering it but keeping
the brain and the heart kind of engaged
it's just so interesting okay next is
called
you asked for this
[Music]
getting like help me i am in hell the
day the world went away and everything
from the fragile
[Music]
all rolled into one right now
um i would say i wasn't wild about the
first part of that track just didn't
really
i did start to feel like i was zoning
out that's cool but the second part
i mean almost sounds like a different
song and the drum groove is different
the chord progression is different it's
got some
some borrowed chords from the minor key
parallel minor
uh the focal harmonies i really enjoyed
i think that they sound really good um
harmonizing with themselves it's really
nice
like uh
beautiful high up in that range that
ending like i said just really feels
felt familiar and i thought it was nice
that that kind of swallowed up the song
a whole
the next one's called darling
[Music]
well that was really different than all
the others um
i'm sure it has a place in the story i
know this is like a film
um so i won't say much more than that
it's very wordy there's like a lot of
lyrics and it takes me time to like
process lyrical information i have to
like
first know the song really well so that
i can like stop thinking about the
harmonies and all the melodies and all
the things that get me really excited
and kind of like switch my brain to
a different
mode and then i can like process the
words
i can't like i kind of like zoned out a
little bit maybe it was just like too
much for me
yeah i mean it's a sweet song it's very
pretty and if the message speaks to you
i could see this being a very
uh special song
but it didn't reach out to me
okay next is called 11 21.
[Music]
oh that chord is good the rhythm section
is just so driving without
it
uh be curious to learn more about that
choice you know like
when you're writing a piece of music you
know you might have to make that choice
right like is this song gonna have drums
and most of us i think don't even
question that
you know we just put the drums in like
of course has to have drums
but it doesn't always it kind of depends
on what you're trying to say
i was freaking out about that one chord
so there's a chord at the beginning of
the progression at least in the
chorus
where uh
halsey's voice is clearly
sounding like it's all in e minor
but then trenton atticus are like
so there's this that clash again between
that major third and that minor third
or the three and flat three of the scale
so just that
and that's
it's that it feels so familiar at this
point because it's such a such a part of
the sound of 9-ish nails
but it really added a lot whenever we
arrived at that chord
it was like no we're not done yet you
know there was sort of this like
curiosity added by that by that note but
whenever you introduce that
raised third or natural third scale
degree
when you've got a flat seven in your
scale which this one does
you end up with this tritone
and so just hearing that kind of ring
out was really really cool i think it
added a lot these are choices i would
never have made if i were producing
halsey's album but i'm so glad it was
made like this is these are the like
kind of small weird choices in a way um
they're not that that weird but for pop
they're a little bit weird you know
they're they're not
there's not common practice
in pop music so
i think halsey did a really good thing
by teaming up with trent and atticus and
really cool to hear more from them about
how it was for them you know i don't
think they've ever
collaborated with a pop artist before
like that right the next song is called
honey
[Music]
i would be interested to hear this song
over maybe a darker production
because it that that contrast could
sound really interesting you know
especially with what what halsey's
saying
um about like sweet like honey but the
taste of my mouth is like blood you know
i didn't really feel the blood in this
song i just felt the honey
so next is called whispers
[Music]
these are the standards to which you
could hold me i need to talk about the
phrasing
youtube
[Music]
hmm
there's something going on with the
phrasing in this song and i'm starting
to get an idea of halsey's
patterns you know some of their
tendencies of like
triplets
and sort of um i was about to say
rapping over the bar line there is
something am i not crazy am i crazy like
thinking that there's some kind a little
bit of a like rap flow to her
to her singing
it just reminds me of it
like this part where she's
singing and then whispering and singing
whispering it's kind of alternating with
the four on the floor groove underneath
but it's like in three or it's in six or
it's a nine or maybe it's
it felt like it was one of those numbers
but it could have been something else
but the whispers are coming at different
parts in each
you don't know when the whispers are
going to come next so it just sort of
feels like they're just like coming in
and whispering in your ear and you can't
you you're not prepared
for that and what they're saying to you
so that was really cool also there was a
note that really stuck out to me is um
really interesting and also is like a
nine inch nails note is the raised sixth
or natural sixth scale degree when
halsey is singing a flat six
so halsey's singing in this f sharp
minor
singing this note
piano is going
so they're kind of at
odds they're only a semitone apart so
it's sort of like halsey singing in f
sharp minor the production is in f sharp
dorian and so um
and the way
trent rezner uses dorian is i think a
little different than a lot of other
composers and musicians
um capitalizing on the new chromatic
motion created between that and the flat
seven instead of
um
sort of the major like four chord that
that brings in
so just like yeah playing with the weird
weirder parts of that sound instead of
the more like traditional parts of that
sound i love the drum groove i love like
slow trudgy grooves like that sort of
minimal i like how the like snare was
sort of just like a smashing sound that
kind of was louder and softer and very
dynamic sounding yeah and halsey's
melodies like there are times when they
do start to feel a little bit repetitive
it's a fine line between repetition that
legitimizes and creates an expectation
and makes you feel like this is
something catchy this is something
familiar
and
then at some point it crosses over into
like
i feel like i'm in a loop or something
you know where i'm not actually moving
anywhere
and i could use some variety and maybe
that's a part of like supporting the
lyrical content more right it's more
about
creating some kind of movement for the
lyrics and less about creating like
a really melodic melody
does that make sense in some ways it
feels like the production is moving
around a lot more than halsey's voice in
some of these songs
that kind of that kind of works you know
uh as long as the production is moving
along and creating all the tension
against the melody
you know that works
okay the next song is called i am not a
woman i'm a god and this one has
twice as many listens as any of the
others so i'm guessing this was a single
maybe
or it's just dope
oh it just sounds like nine inch nails
oh my god
[Music]
oh gosh it's over already i liked that i
mean it sounded a lot like kind of like
nine of snails hesitation marks
some of the sounds on that album aren't
necessarily my taste some of them are
this was sort of in between you know
there's some parts of it that i was like
really enjoying those choices
um there's like a descending
scale that i
it'll take me a little time to figure
out what it is because it wasn't jumping
out as anything i could recognize but i
just knew it was not
in the key of
f uh what was this a or g sharp uh maybe
or a flat
mixolydian or
maybe
[Laughter]
minor
i'm not actually clear because there's a
lot of it's mixed modal there's like
notes coming in from various scales but
that that descending line damn dum dum
there was just a couple like i thought
at first i knew what he was doing i was
like oh yeah he's outlining this scale
and it was like nope what's that note
and like oh what is that note and i'm
not even sure if it's like the same from
octave to octave i think it might even
like change as they go down
so that really stuck out to me
um
i love again like sort of resolving to
like a major tonic chord creating that
tritone and and halsey is
leaning on the fourth skill degree which
is a very like um awesome place to land
but it's not a stable place to land it
creates tension and just to never
resolve that i kind of like how that
sounds
with the third
and the seventh being leaned on so much
too right
if i had to like define one chord for
that song it would be that one and oh
the other thing that was like made me
smile was just there's all these like
sort of the major third of all the
chords is being played by some kind of
synth or something it's got this feeling
like closer or uh
several songs on hesitation marks
oh yeah that's what it was
[Music]
just creating this sort of strange
wide-eyed sound kind of overly bright
and
um
but yeah that that one the the nine of
snails fingerprint on that one is a lot
stronger so i can
i'm i'm wondering if that was a single
or if all those views are coming from
the nine of chanels fans
how do you halsey fans feel about this
i'm really curious
is this like super different
i'm guessing it's a pretty big departure
but you know what do you think are these
weird choices weirding you out do they
sound like ugly and like disturbing to
you or distracting or are you like into
it
i'm just curious okay the next song is
called the lighthouse
[Music]
this is my favorite part of the song
that production reminds me a little bit
of nine channel song uh non-entity
there's some definitely some like catchy
lines there i like the part
[Music]
um it's kind of just like a classic run
it just it sounds really nice in
contrast to the other parts that's cool
all right the last track is called
you burn me
say that right undertones
[Music]
uh just that kind of pulsing quarter
note like bass
plucking situation that we hear in any
snails music is just so again so near
and dear to me
chord progression was really nice too
and i kind of like switch around those
are great chords i love the sort of uh
little tinkling sounds at the top um
against the sort of pulsing base it was
just really really lovely
begging for some piano stuff and i think
i heard some piano
which i just really enjoy hearing really
in any context i love hearing the piano
yeah i enjoyed this
some really cool stuff happens in this
album and i hope that
uh halsey and tren atticus and all the
other folks that worked on the album
feel really proud of this i think it's
neat i'm glad it's in the world so