Halsey released her highly-anticipated third album Manic yesterday, and it has earned a high score of 85 on Metacritic. Within a day, it’s already eligible for gold certification as well! The record has features from the likes of Alanis Morissette, a quick appearance by John Mayer, and samples clips from movies like Jennifer’s Body.

Fans are describing the project as her most personal yet, tackling topics like insecurity and Ashley’s past miscarriages. She shared via Twitter:

Writing this album has been a lesson in forgiving myself. In being proud of myself and kind to myself despite how much this world is designed to make you hate yourself. I hope when it’s finally in your hands it brings you that same peace. It’s not a quiet peace. It’s a loud one.

What are your thoughts on the record? I was blown away by it — my favorite songs right now are “Graveyard,” “Forever … (is a long time),” “I HATE EVERYBODY,” “3am,” “Finally // beautiful stranger,” and “929.”

cc: @music

I really don’t catch up with pop, so I haven’t heard much. Graveyard is a great song in my opinion. Without Me is decent, and Clementine is pretty good. Finally // beautiful stranger is really good. I know I’ll hear some tracks on the radio.

But this album hasn’t been doing so hot in terms of numbers. It’s not doing great on Spotify from what I can tell, with Mac Miller, Eminem, and Roddy Ricch pushing any tracks by Halsey out of the top 40.

The album had a lot of singles of which most I really enjoyed. I wasn’t a huge fan of “SUGA’s Interlude” or “clementine,” but “You should be sad” was by far my favorite track from the record, and “Graveyard” and “Without Me” are also great. I really do wish the album contained “Nightmare,” however.

The album as you said is really meant to be a super personal take on her life in the past few years, and so the newly released tracks weren’t really meant to be some crazy bangers IMO. Alas, I enjoyed the record, but did feel like it missed out on some opportunities for her to really showcase her dynamicism.

Exact same feelings as @Pessoa on the songs he listed. Really wish “Nightmare” had an album to call home, it was so good. By the time “You should be sad” came out I was like wtf is this album supposed to sound like and that’s when the title clicked in my head, so I prepared for it to be all over the place, which it definitely is. Slowly growing on me though after more listens and getting other perspectives on it. The one true mainstay throughout it is the lyrics which are never a letdown.

Faves right now are “Graveyard,” “You should be sad,” “3am,” “Finally // beautiful stranger,” “More” (Like okay stab me in the heart), and “Still Learning.”

This is an amazing album. I feel like it will go down as one of 2020’s best projects. The lyrics feel personal but the sound is still Halsey. And as the album’s title suggests it has everything in it. It goes from cheeky to emo to bold. My favorite tracks so far are Graveyard, Still Learning, and More (especially after finding out what it’s about). Also Nightmare is a queen, may she never be forgotten.

I feel like the album got overshadowed by Eminem’s release and it deserves so much more love.

i love the new album! there are definitely some songs that need to grow on me, like “Forever… (is a long time)” but there are also some songs on the album that i’ve had on repeat. like “3 am,” “You should be sad” and “Finally // beautiful stranger.”

for me, the fact that it is so versatile really speaks to me. halsey was able to put something down that is so personal, but also very relatable. i’m really sad i’m not able to go see her on tour. the hfk concert was one of my favorite concerts i’ve been to!

kind of sucks for her that eminem did a surprise release :(

i’m always gonna be a sucker for hfk and the whole storyline, but this one holds up against it.i’m honestly not too mad that “nightmare” didn’t end up on the album. i feel like it wouldn’t be very cohesive. also kind of glad she didn’t end up taking the angry route, not sure how well that would’ve worked over 16 songs. would be cool to see an EP of stuff like that though!

current stand-out tracks:

• “more” : i have zero personal experience with the topic discussed in the song, but oh boy does it pull at the heart strings

• “dominic’s interlude” : not usually a fan of vocal distortion/pitching/whatever but i do like that intro. wish it was longer (so we could have the chorus twice)

• “929” : the lyrical content on this one i quite like. i don’t think it’s a song i could have on repeat though.

my least favourites:

• “alanis' interlude” : really not a fan of the chorus.

• “suga’s interlude” : don’t like this one for the same reason i don’t listen to k-pop (or anything in a different language, sorry) – i really like to know what the artist is saying (for the most part) without having to learn the lyrics/read translations

I’m MORE than happy “Nightmare” didn’t make the album, because it is downright horrible.

I loved this album!!
Halsey is so amazing and this entire album proves how awesome and amazing she is!!
I actually found myself enjoying every single song on the album. but for me “Still Learning”, “Graveyard”, “Finally// beautiful stranger”, “Forever … (is a long time)”, “929”, “You Should Be Sad”, “Without Me”.
I’m sooo glad that “Without Me” was included on this album!!
So in conclusion, I love halsey, and I loved the entire album!!
And great job posting a thread again @VinylZombie_MCR !!! :))) :D

I am excited whats to come from this artist after these breakthroughs! Each musical venture is a process and a resolution. The world is so accustomed to the cycle of reconstruction and destruction, but reject Healed and Optimal functioning….Halsey is getting there and we all need to catch up to a new force of Wellness that organically lives in the music. I find that the great musicians come from a perfect and balanced place but live in a chaos and a world of conflict that is soothe from the works they delve in. We all are infact.