Cancel your plans and take the long way home; Badlands is one of those listen-on-repeat albums whose cool colors and icy layers shape-shift with every play. A moody, electro-pop singer/songwriter in the vein of Lorde and Ellie Goulding, Halsey has a resounding voice with just a dusting of grit. Badlands feels so ripped from her personal journal—“I write songs about sex and being sad. I will never be anything but honest,” reads her Instagram bio—that one connects instantly with her freedom and vulnerability. And when she speaks truth on “Castle” and “New Americana,” it’s like the graduation speech you’ve always wanted to hear.
