Hopeless Fountain Kingdom (stylized in all lowercase) is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Halsey. It was released on June 2, 2017, through Astralwerks. The album features guest appearances from Quavo, Lauren Jauregui and Cashmere Cat. Halsey co-wrote every song on the album, while production was handled by Lido and Benny Blanco, among others. The record was described by Halsey as having more "radio friendly music" when compared to her previous releases. As a result, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom is primarily a pop, electropop, R&B, and synth-pop record.
Following its release, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart in the United States and the Canadian Albums Chart. In the United States, it was certified 2× Platinum by the RIAA. In support of the album, Halsey embarked on the Hopeless Fountain Kingdom Tour (2017–2018).
The lead single, "Now or Never", was released on April 4, 2017. It peaked at number 17 on the US Billboard Hot 100, marking Halsey's first top-twenty entry on the chart as a lead artist. It also became Halsey's first track as a lead artist to earn multi-Platinum status; it was certified double Platinum by the RIAA. The second single, "Bad at Love", peaked at number five on the Hot 100; at the time, it was Halsey's highest peak as a lead artist on the chart. The song was certified quintuple Platinum by the RIAA. The third and final single, "Alone", reached number 66 on the Hot 100, being certified Platinum by the RIAA and reaching number one on the US Dance Club Songs chart.
Inspiration and musical style
Musically, Halsey stated that she didn't want her first album to be a radio album, and that although Hopeless Fountain Kingdom has a more radio-friendly sound, she was still seeing herself as an alternative artist; stating that she is "more than capable of writing radio music".[1][2][3] For this album, Halsey worked with several producers, including Greg Kurstin, Benny Blanco and Ricky Reed.[1][4]
Hopeless Fountain Kingdom is a concept album that connects with her previous album Badlands (2015),[5] and Halsey has explained various parallels between lyrics on songs from both albums.[6] She also hinted that something on the album was inspired by the song "Empty Gold" from her 2014 debut EP Room 93.[7] The story and characters of Hopeless Fountain Kingdom are mostly inspired by William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, with the opening track "The Prologue" featuring the play's prologue spoken by Halsey.[8][9] Furthermore, the music video for "Alone" was heavily influenced by Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film adaptation of the play, Romeo + Juliet.[10] Inspiration for the album has come from Halsey addressing herself from a toxic relationship.[11] In the behind-the-scenes video for "Now or Never", Halsey revealed that the record is a sort of purgatory for people who are too bad for heaven, but too good for hell.[12] About the album's title, Billboard pointed out that it might be named after a real fountain built by Halsey's ex-boyfriend off the L train's Halsey Street stop in Brooklyn.[13][14]
Composition and theme
Halsey referred Romeo and Juliet as an inspiration of Hopeless Fountain Kingdom.
The opening track "The Prologue" quotes Romeo and Juliet,[19] which reinforces the album's sense of "conceptual forethought".[27] "100 Letters" sets the album's tone through imagery of "dingy floors" and "would-be love notes destroyed in the wash".[3] It opens with Halsey's mix of "righteousness" and self-criticism, illustrated by the lines "I'm not something to butter up and taste when you get bored" and "I've spent too many nights on dirty bathroom floors".[27] "Eyes Closed" portrays "getting over someone by getting under someone else", which aligns its mood with the Weeknd's "production drears, withering melodies, and joyless sex".[3] "Heaven in Hiding" features where the "heart-thud pace and breathless quotables" suggest "genuine lust" within the album's emotional framework.[3] "Alone" is a soul song[22] that features "plush" brass, cellos and a '90s-leaning sound, as Halsey's increasingly agitated vocal climbs toward the quoted anxiety of "I know you're dying to meet me [...] you'll wish that you never did".[3]PopMatters observed a lyrical and musical resemblance to Alessia Cara's "Here", which suggests a familiar conversational pop structure.[8] "Now or Never" is described as an "exceedingly effective mid-tempo summer jam"[28] and R&B-leaning song, accompanied by a "cinematic, Romeo and Juliet-themed video".[27] "Sorry" is a classic piano ballad song[8][19] that features "heart-wrenching pianos", with Halsey admitting to treating "the people that I love like jewellery" and singing, "I didn't mean to try you on".[29] "Good Mourning" is characterized as giving "Rihanna-gone-sci-fi-vibes".[29] Described as "an odd one-minute interlude", the song features vocals from a "little kid".[19]
A 17-second sample from the chorus of "Bad at Love" by Halsey.
An urban hip-hop song,[22][30] "Lie" features guest vocals from Quavo, which adds a collaborative element to the album's midsection.[8] It depicts "both sides of a strange relationship gone off the rails", as she singing the lines "Are you misled? / I gave you the messiest head".[19] "Walls Could Talk" is depicted as "catchy" and "simple", which embraces a concise structure that lasts under two minutes.[8] "Bad at Love" recalls the singer's past relationships.[29] Described as breaking down how Halsey "always makes the same mistakes" with two different genders, it frames the narrative through contrasting verses and a self-aware perspective.[31] "Don't Play" details "nights of drinks, parties, and debauchery", as it uses vivid and explicit imagery.[8] "Strangers", described as shimmering and yearning "like a recent Tegan and Sara cut", is framed as an attempt to place "a love song between two women" on pop radio, featuring the album's "most nuanced lyrics".[3] Alongside "Bad at Love", the song is identified as one of the tracks in which Halsey explicitly references loving women.[8] "Angel on Fire" includes "the most teenager-y line", with Halsey singing that "nobody seems to ask about me anymore / And nobody seems to care 'bout anything I think".[8] "Devil in Me" appears as part of the album's closing trio.[8] Produced by Greg Kurstin, it is paired with "Angel on Fire" and noted for sustaining its weight more evenly.[28] Serving as one of the final tracks, "Hopeless" is grouped within the album's closing sequence.[8] Featuring Cashmere Cat, the song has been described as an "alternative-electro" song.[30]
Promotion
Halsey referenced the album as early as 2014, posting "the Kingdom" via her Twitter.[14] When playing at Madison Square Garden in 2016, she displayed the words "you can find me in the Kingdom" on a screen.[14] In February 2017, she invited 100 fans in London to a church to hear four new songs from the album.[32] In March, four Twitter accounts connected to Halsey began hinting at a storyline present in the album, seemingly involving two characters named Luna and Solis belonging to two different houses called the House of Aureum and the House of Angelus.[14] Soon after the tweets were released, Halsey began mailing out quotes from Romeo and Juliet to fans.[14] Halsey and Baz Luhrmann would later be interviewed by Beats 1's Zane Lowe about their respective adaptation processes.[33]
Hopeless Fountain Kingdom was announced on March 7, 2017, via Halsey's Twitter account, along with a photograph of her holding a rose.[34] On March 23, she announced its release date of June 2.[35][36] To release the album cover, she had a global scavenger hunt,[37] where miniature gun shaped USB's were hidden in 9 cities around the world with pieces of the cover.[38]
On February 2, 2018, Halsey released the music video for somber piano track "Sorry" as "something to hold u over".[80] The video has racked up over 120 million views to date.[81]
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 66 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable reviews" based on 10 reviews.[83]
Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone stated Halsey "shows off all her wild musical ambitions" on her "bold" second album. "It's her sprawling science-fiction breakup tale, indulging her taste for wide-screen melodrama." Musically, he opined the singer is "going for adult dystopian synth-pop realness."[19] For The Observer, Kitty Empire noted Halsey's "generic guest spot" on the Chainsmokers' 2016 hit "Closer" had been an early "omen", arguing that the album ultimately "succumbs to post-hit syndrome". She emphasized that the record was "not remotely bad" and that it sounded like exactly the kind of album one would expect from a "hotly awaited pop" release in 2017, yet noted that the presence of the music industry was keenly felt beneath the surface.[27]
Jon Caramanica in The New York Times opined it "liberally borrows styles from other singers". He highlighted "where Halsey sets herself apart is in her subject matter and manner of delivery. Her tales have rough edges and ellipsis endings", however, "there isn't a flicker of musical edge on this album, only a belief in the crowdsourcing of ideas."[85]USA Today's Maeve McDermott expressed similar sentiments in a mixed review, noting that the album "borrows magpie-like from other stars' signature sounds, with some working better than others."[86] Jem Aswad of Variety wrote that Hopeless Fountain Kingdom largely succeeds, noting that it represents a "big step forward" both musically and conceptually from the more "monochromatic" sound of Halsey's debut, even though she is surrounded by "heavy company".[87]Spin editor Jordan Sargent wrote that while Halsey still "will have time", the album is a "deeply imperfect and too-often derivative" effort which, though "not without its charms", may struggle to forge the same connection with the average listener that she previously built with "her core fanbase".[88]
Commercial performance
Hopeless Fountain Kingdom debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 106,000 album-equivalent units,[54][89] of which 76,000 were pure album sales.[90] It made Halsey the first female act in 2017 to open atop the chart.[89] In Canada and Australia, the album peaked at number one[91] and debuted at number two with first-week sales of 4,300 copies.[92] The album debuted at number 12 on the UK Albums Chart, selling 7,123 copies in its first week.[93]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
