For every glossy BTS collab and dreamy pop team-up she boasts, Halsey has always worn her rock influences proudly.
Her first hit found her declaring she was part of a generation raised on “Biggie and Nirvana.” She sang on a song referencing “that Blink-182 song,” then recruited Travis Barker himself to play drums on a huge metallic rager. She recorded “Nightmare,” a nu-metal-inspired song that afforded her “a record of the wreckage of her life.”
That’s why her latest feature, a crunching stomp-pop number with Bring Me the Horizon that’s reminiscent of Linkin Park, makes sense — as much as anything makes sense in our genre-liberated music ecosystem.
The song is called “¿,” and it finds Halsey’s earthy voice coloring an otherwise industrial (yet melodic) soundscape. As darkly inward as pop turned in 2019, “¿” has a certain lightness, thanks to carefully deployed breakbeat measures and Halsey’s winking lyrics: “Oh, so tall, it broke the fourth wall / Guess our fairy tale had a few plot holes” and the endearing “Taking showers every hour and I choke on steam / Writing on the mirrors and the space between.”
The tune is featured on Bring Me the Horizon’s new EP, which is truly titled Music to listen to~dance to~blaze to~pray to~feed to~sleep to~talk to~grind to~trip to~breathe to~help to~hurt to~scroll to~roll to~love to~hate to~learn Too~plot to~play to~be to~feel to~breed to~sweat to~dream to~hide to~live to~die to~GO TO, and which dropped today (December 27).
As you wait for Halsey’s Manic album to drop on January 17, listen to “¿,” in all its Queen of the Damned soundtrack glory, above.
