If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power
If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Halsey, released on August 27, 2021, by Capitol Records. Produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails, the album marked a departure from Halsey's previous work, featuring a heavy industrial influence, and was described by Halsey as a concept album about "the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth". It was her final album for Capitol, before she parted ways with the label in April 2023.
Leading up to the release of If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power, a theatrical film directed by American filmmaker Colin Tilley, titled after the album and featuring its music, screened in select IMAX cinemas around the world on August 25 and 26, 2021. The album went on to debut within the top 10 of thirteen sales charts worldwide, including the US Billboard 200, where it became Halsey's fourth consecutive record to debut inside the top two of the chart. Three singles were released to promote the album: "I Am Not a Woman, I'm a God", which reached number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100, "You Asked for This" and "Lilith". In February 2023, the album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised its ambitious concept and theatrical production. The album was featured in the top 10's of several best-of album lists for 2021, and was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. The album was supported by the Love and Power Tour.
Background and recording
In January 2020, Halsey released her third studio album, Manic, which spawned "Without Me", her second number one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. She toured Europe from February to March 2020 as part of her third concert tour, the Manic World Tour, before the rest of the tour was postponed and later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, Halsey remained musically active; she contributed the song "Experiment on Me" to the soundtrack for the superhero film Birds of Prey, produced by Oliver Sykes and Jordan Fish, and collaborated on songs with artists such as Kelsea Ballerini's "The Other Girl", Juice Wrld's "Life's a Mess", and Machine Gun Kelly's "Forget Me Too". She also announced her first pregnancy, with American screenwriter Alev Aydin, after suffering several miscarriages due to endometriosis and undergoing surgery in 2017.Around 2019, Halsey decided to reinvent her sound. "If I want to sustain myself and give myself longevity, I need to continue to make things that I love and make things that challenge me as a creative". She reached out to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of Nine Inch Nails with a letter, asking them if they could produce the album. "I was just really honest and said I was a huge fan and I’ve been plagiarising you guys for years – badly – and I’m not arrogant enough to believe that I have anything new to offer you, but this album is about pregnancy, gender identity, body horror. The most important thing to me is that this album has tension – it needs to be visceral, or I’m doing a disservice to the message."
The album was a long-distance project, with Reznor and Ross recording in Los Angeles while Halsey sang all of its songs at a studio in Turks and Caicos Islands. Other remote contributions include drums by American musician Dave Grohl in "Honey" and guitar by American musician Lindsey Buckingham in "Darling". Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Halsey stated she had been wanting to work with Nine Inch Nails for years, because she "wanted really cinematic sort of, not horror specifically, but kind of just really unsettling production" on one of her projects. In an interview with Lizzy Goodman at Capitol Studios, Halsey stated that she started working on the album in June 2020, and that "Lilith" was the first song written for the record.
Composition and lyrics
If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power is an alternative rock, grunge-pop, industrial, noise rock, pop-punk, and rock record, with heavy industrial rock influences and an overarching cinematic mood. It also infuses ambient, avant-garde, drum and bass, hip-hop, punk rock, and synth-pop elements in its songs. Critics dubbed the album a departure from the arena pop sound of Halsey's previous albums. The instrumentation of If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power consists of rattling drums, rough and heavily distorted guitar riffs, tinkling keyboard lines, stark pianos, and drum machines. Feminism is the coalescing theme throughout the album, specifically institutionalized misogyny and patriarchy. However, Halsey stated that it was not a "girl power" album. "he lead single is ‘I Am Not a Woman, I'm a God’ From the jump, I’m like, ‘I’m not a woman.’ I'm not saying any of that. There's no girl power in this album."Concept
Halsey stated If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power is a concept album focusing on the positives and negatives of pregnancy and childbirth. The album was originally built around "mortality and everlasting love and our place/permanence", but the emotional impact of her pregnancy "introduced new themes of control and body horror and autonomy and conceit." Halsey also emphasized that it "feels very cool" to have an album with no guest features again, following her debut studio album, Badlands. She said If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power "had to be entirely from voice".Artwork
The cover artwork of If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power was unveiled through video shot at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, in which Halsey walked through the exhibits before finally pulling away a cover to reveal the life-size picture of the artwork. The cover artwork was photographed by Lucas Garrido. It depicts an artistic rendering of Halsey as Madonna, a category of icons and works of art depicting Mary, mother of Jesus. The singer is seen seated on a golden throne, wearing a purple dress, holding a baby with a towel, with her left breast exposed. She stated that the artwork portrays "the sentiment of journey over the past few months", and aims to uproot the social stigma around "bodies & breastfeeding".The artwork was specifically inspired by the Virgin and Child Surrounded By Angels from Jean Fouquet's two-panel Renaissance oil painting called Melun Diptych, and became a subject of widespread attention and discussion on the internet. The Mercury News associated the artwork with the topfreedom movement on Instagram "#FreeTheNipple", and noted visual similarities to Cersei Lannister, a Game of Thrones character. However, The Spectator criticized it for appropriation of Catholic art, expressing bafflement with "the complacency of today's Catholics when it comes to the misuse of their iconography." A censored version of the album cover, where the exposed left nipple is covered by the baby's hand, is also available to music streaming platforms. The censored version of the cover was also used on CD and vinyl pressings available at Target and Walmart stores.
Promotion and release
On June 28, 2021, numerous billboards went up across major cities of the United States, announcing the fourth studio album by Halsey, titled If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power. The singer confirmed it herself through her social media accounts on the same day. Together with the announcement, she also previewed "Bells in Santa Fe", one of the tracks from the album. It was also revealed that the album was produced by American musician Trent Reznor and English musician Atticus Ross, members of American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. In a short teaser video, Halsey hinted at the album's punk rock sound. On July 7, 2021, Halsey unveiled the cover art and announced that If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power would be released on August 27, 2021. Halsey gave birth to her child, Ender Ridley Aydin, on July 14, 2021.The album was released on August 27, 2021, with minimal promotion. Its CDs, vinyl records, and box sets were made available for pre-order on July 7, 2021, on Halsey's webstore. Limited-edition red vinyl LPs, with an alternative cover, were sold exclusively at Urban Outfitters. Halsey graced the August 2021 cover of American women's magazine Allure, for which she was interviewed about her social identity, relationships, pregnancy, and family. On July 23, 2021, an online game called "LXXXXP" was launched, which is a choose-your-own-adventure-style platform that encourages users to "choose your path and discover your destiny". The "You drowned in a freezing lake" outcome results in a snippet of a song from the album, which turns out to be an instrumental from "The Lighthouse", track 12. On August 10, 2021, the titles of the album's songs were revealed through Amazon Alexa, which recited the track listing upon asking it "Alexa, tell me about Halsey's new album." The next day, Halsey herself posted the track list across her social media. No singles were released from the album prior to its release.
Halsey debuted "I Am Not a Woman, I'm a God" and "Darling" live at Saturday Night Live on October 9, 2021, hosted by American media personality Kim Kardashian. For the performance of "Darling", she was accompanied by Lindsey Buckingham playing guitar and providing backup vocals. An extended version of the album, featuring the 2019 single "Nightmare" as well as a reprise of it, and an exclusive track, titled "People Disappear Here", was released on January 3, 2022.. On August 31, 2022, Halsey released a deluxe edition of the album, including three demos from the songs "1121", "Honey" and "Lilith".
Halsey performed the Diablo IV Anthem version of "Lilith" at The Game Awards 2022 as a joint promotion with Diablo IV whose primary antagonist shares the same name. The full version with Suga of BTS was released on June 5, 2023, along with the music video.