There are albums that I listen to with the assumption that I am going to hate them. Maybe I’ll find one song amongst an otherwise mediocre compilation. Then there are albums that break my expectations.

Welcome to Ayymacareina’s Reilizations.

Now, I would like to clarify, neither of those are typos. My name is Reina and I like puns. I’ll be guest writing here with Pink Cloyd sometimes.

Without further ado, the album with the honor of being the first written Reilization: “hopeless fountain kingdom” by Halsey.

When I saw that Halsey had released a new album, I was interested. I like the overall sound of “Badlands” and she writes well, so I figured I would give her a shot at impressing me. And oh my gosh, did she ever.

Halsey has enough guts to go beyond what listeners already consider popular and employ her own creativity. This experimentation does two things for Halsey: 1) pushes the limits of pop music and 2) broadens her potential audience. With over 18 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Halsey has the power to fundamentally change pop music and with her latest release “hopeless fountain kingdom,” she has taken the initiative and started to break the pop music scene from the inside.

“hopeless fountain kingdom” is a cohesive album that emerges from the depths of conformity modern singles have created.

Halsey tells the story of the various trials of young, naïve love in the first half of the album. An overdone topic on the whole, but Halsey takes it and makes it her own. By combining spoken parts and electronic sound with the overarching “Romeo and Juliet” theme, Halsey puts a new modern twist on an age-old tale. The first time I listened through “hopeless fountain kingdom,” the variety of sounds and genres I heard confused me. What is Halsey doing? This is definitely not a pop album. And that’s where the Reilization happened.

Halsey doesn’t follow a genre for this album; she made her own. “hopeless fountain kingdom” has songs that sound like everyone from PVRIS to P!nk with splashes of Alessia Cara and Adele. You can see the inspiration she drew from modern pop singers and even groups like Little Mix from the early 2000s; “Walls Could Talk” fills me with nostalgia and beautiful string instruments.

While most of these songs follow the common 2 verses + 1 catchy chorus + oh oh oh bridge, I can’t help but appreciate this album. Halsey took pop music and spun it on its head. From the first hum and spoken prologue, she keeps me interested. Keeps me listening even through the sections that I would normally skip over if I wasn’t so enraptured by her story and how relatable it is. It blows my mind that Halsey could take such unique music and combine it with lyrics that feel like they were taken from my own personal journal. “I can’t stop thinking that I can’t stop thinking that I almost gave you everything.”

“I run away when things are good / and never really understood / the way you laid your eyes on me / in ways that no one ever could.”

Overall, I am still confused by this album. I would not like most of the songs if I listened to them solo, but as a whole piece, “hopeless fountain kingdom” calls to me. The unique sound with familiar story gives me something to soak in while the occasional pop song floats by.

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