Halsey - Colors - Song review

28/02/16

Halsey - Colors - Song review

In 2015, Halsey released her debut album 'Badlands' to mixed critical reception. Some critics liked her and she quickly developed a huge fan base, however some critics criticized her music because they thought she didn't a particularly different or unique voice, critics also thought that she wasn't doing anything that other artists like Lorde or Lana Del rey hadn't done before her. Her big Single from that album 'New Americana' didn't help matters as that song did not please critics at all. So I didn't know what to think when Halsey released another song from her debut, but I went into Colors at least expecting something better than 'New American', did I get that?

Well for the most part, Colors is a much better song 'New Americana'. But I'm still not sure I have alot to say about her as a performer, she has a good enough voice but as I said before, I can listen to a song like 'Team' by Lorde or 'National Anthem' by Lana Del Rey and enjoy them more than this song. 

So what went wrong here? Well to start off with, the instrumentation is barely worth mentioning on this song. It leaves no impression on me what so ever and is heavily over shadowed by the vocals. Say what you will about an artist like Lorde but at least her instrumentation is more interesting than this and works well with her vocals, here however, the instrumentation appears to be struggling to work well with the vocals.

As for the lyrics and themes, all I can say is that I may feel slightly awkward talking about the lyrics on a Lana Del Rey album,but at least I have things to say about them! Halsey is credited as the writer of the song which is admirable but I can't but feel that she could do with some help from someone like Max Martin to help her write a cohesive song. From what I can tell the song is about a boyfriend with a drug addiction and who doesn't realise that the people around him actually care about him, but the lyrics are repetitive and believe me, this is not a song that can pull off repetition very well.

In conclusion, Colors is a song that could have been good but I can't help but feel it squanders it's huge potential and instead of being legitimately interesting and telling a captivating story, it's just kind of dull and a bit forgettable, Still better than 'New Americana' but I still don't think I'll come back to this any time soon.

Vocals: 7/10

Instrumentation: 4.5/10

Lyrics: 5/10

Overall: 5/10