Halsey Lyrics

DESCRIPTION OF TRACKS

DESCRIPTION  OF CASTEL

“Castle” opens the main gates to enter theBadlands, the booming metropolis where Halsey says “cognitive activity happens” in correlation to her state of mind.

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DESCRIPTION OF HOLD ME DOWN

Halsey explained the meaning and inspiration behind “Hold Me Down” at a live show in June of 2015:

I was meeting a bunch of mean, old men who thought they knew better than I. And I met this one guy in particular, a certain asshole who inspired this song. This song is a reminder that no matter how small you are or how small people may make you seem, you should never let anything hold you down.

This song appears on Halsey’s debut albumBadlands, released as a pre-order single on June 2nd, 2015. It samples the song “Easy”by Son

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DESCRIPTION OF NEW AMERICANA 

Although it was a previously released track, the revamped studio version of “New Americana” premiered on Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio, receiving enormous praise. DJ Zane Lowe spun it twice in a row because he thought it was that good! It became thesecond-most played song in the first month of the radio station’s existence. Halseydescribed “New Americana” as “a social commentary on pop culture.”

Before performing the song in Philadelphia in June of 2015, Halsey said it’s not about smoking weed and listening to rap music, but rather about “a generation that is unafraid of diversity.” In an interview withLast.fm, she made some remarks about the track:

It's about America's tendencies to latch onto diversity and how pop culture has shaped us as a nation. Music is a universal language, and what music has done for our current generation is diversified it, because the music that you grew up on instills a lot of morals and a lot of beliefs in you because, you know, music is the greatest teacher.

Halsey also posted a small paragraph on Twitter providing some detail into the video. The official music video premiered on MTV on September 25th, 2015.

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DESCRIPTION OF DRIVE

“Drive” touches on a love that lives within boundaries. The lovers keep their relationship distinct – careful not to make the first move, yet inevitably enjoying each other’s presence and silently yearning for more.

The lyrics leaked when fans took advantage of their early-listening privileges during Halsey’s VIP for the Smoke and Mirrors Tourwhere she supported Imagine Dragons. The song was also prematurely released whenSpotify Mexico made a mistake by streaming it.

“Drive” became available through iTunes at midnight exactly a week before the release of Badlands on August 21st, 2015.

Halsey described it as “the music baby of me and Timmy the Terror aka the mastermind behind “Hurricane” […] sad vibey heat.”

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DESCRIPTION OF HURRICANE

“Hurricane” is a darkly produced track about avoiding attachments both to locations and lovers, and forming the appropriate persona. Originally from Halsey’s first EP, it also appears on the deluxe version of her debut album, Badlands.

In an interview with Complex, she said “Hurricane” is about her friend Zach: “He was an older guy I was seeing. He lived in Brooklyn on Halsey Street.”

Hurricane, mmm…is like the trippy song, I love this song. When I play this live, I like close my eyes and zone out super hard and kinda like for get that I’m on stage cause it’s so dreamy. It’s about a girl that kinda like falls for this guy who is gonna make things hard on her and is gonna take advantage of her, but she kinda ends up turning it around in the end and she says: “I’m a wanderess/I’m a one night stand/Don’t belong to no city/Don’t belong to no man.” So it’s kinda like her response to him, saying like you know, you can think you got me all you want, but I don’t belong to anyone but me. And umm you know I talk about Brooklyn, Brooklyn’s my place. That’s where Halsey comes from, Hurricane is a very special song to me and I love it.
– Room 93 Spotify Commentary