Manic is more than a breakup record, then – it is the aftermath of years of feeling beholden to lovers, collaborators and the public. Her traumas don’t exist to benefit some other person.” That is the trope of the manic pixie dream girl. When they didn’t need me any more, they would thank me then leave.
“I spent a lot of time being the most exciting thing in everybody else’s life. “This album is about me deciding to demand more from myself,” she told her tween superfans. There was a ferris wheel, a carousel and fireworks, but, as she strapped on a black guitar, the mood was not about celebration, but reclamation. The night before we meet, Halsey debuted Manic in the car park of the Capitol Records building. Halsey leaves her emotional gates unlocked, and it is resonating: her three albums have all reached No 1 or 2 in the US Manic’s lead single, Without Me, spent a year in the US charts and she has twice topped the singles chart in the UK, where she plays three arena dates next month. Musically, Manic takes in minimal electronica (Ashley), countryfied pop (You Should Be Sad), FM rock (3am). On Manic, she discusses her father (929), her breakup from rapper G-Eazy (Without Me) and her reproductive health (More). Then, she expressed her pain through dystopian metaphors now, she is specific and literal. Now 24, she began releasing music on Tumblr when she wast 17. “I was petrified to release it,” she says. It is the day after she put out her third album, Manic, her most exposed and versatile yet. Halsey is sitting at the kitchen table, dousing a burrito and waffles in hot sauce in front of a towering image of Kurt Cobain playing the Reading festival. You clear the first, then you wait as the next is released by her team. T here are two security gates protecting Halsey’s home in the winding hills of Los Angeles.