US pop singer-songwriter Halsey excels on third album ‘Manic’

US pop singer-songwriter Halsey — aka Ashley Frangipane — dismantles her public persona.

American pop singer-songwriter Halsey, aka Ashley Frangipane.

POP

Manic

Halsey

Capitol Records

★★★★½

With her third album, US pop singer-songwriter Halsey — aka Ashley Frangipane — dismantles her public persona and breaks free from society’s perception of her as a “manic pixie dream girl”. When she emerged in 2015 as an ethereal, youthful songstress with quirk and dyed hair, she immediately landed in the MPDG trope, which was coined by film critic Nathan Rabin and is said to exist “solely to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures”. To end Manic’s opening song, a voice sample can be heard speaking directly to Halsey’s rejection of the MPDG label. “Too many guys think I’m a concept or I complete them or I’m gonna make them alive,” says the defiant sample over Halsey’s whirring synths. “I’m just a f..ked up girl who’s looking for my own peace of mind. Don’t assign me yours.” Manic, like its name suggests, is full of heightened emotions — exuberant highs and cavernous lows — marked by a palpable restlessness symptomatic of the millennial generation. The album opens with the introspective Ashley, addressing the 25-year-old singer’s identity conflict — “Is it really that strange if I always want to change?” — amid syncopated rhythms and deep synths. The songs traverse various styles, oscillating between pop, rock, country, punk and even K-Pop. The single You Should Be Sad offers acoustic, sassy country vibes, whereas I Hate Everybody is a slower, fairytale-esque ballad and 3am is reminiscent of Avril Lavigne-style punk rock. The 16 tracks include interludes from featured artists such as Alanis Morissette, Dominic Fike and Korean rapper Min Yoongi, who is better known as Suga, a member of the Korean pop boy band BTS. The most impressive of these is Suga’s Interlude, on which Yoongi raps in Korean about the loneliness associated with achieving dreams of fame and success, between short Halsey verses that describe the battle between “having it all and giving it up”. Manic is smartly produced and combines modern techniques with nostalgic throwbacks. It’s an impressive work that showcases her unique brand of intelligent, intriguing pop.

Emily Ritchie

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Le Tango Perpetuel.

CLASSICAL

Le Tango Perpetuel

Australia Ensemble

Tall Poppies

★★★★

Four decades ago, the Australia Ensemble gave its first concert at UNSW. Since then, it has released about 10 albums for Tall Poppies. The latest is an attractive confection of mostly French music: four piano pieces arranged for small ensemble by Ian Munro, the group’s much-admired pianist and occasional composer since 2000. The novelty here is a set of not particularly remarkable tango miniatures by Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth, for which Peter Neville tosses in extra doses of percussion spice. Familiar suites by Ravel and Debussy are played and recorded with affection but it is a live performance from August 2001 that takes both cake and icing. The late Gerald English provides the narration for Satie’s Sports and Divertissements, sounding more Inspector Clouseau than Peter Sellers. May there be more!

Vincent Plush

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Arias.

JAZZ

Arias

Joe Chindamo

Origin Recordings

★★★★½

I found this album deeply melancholic and elegiac but at the same time totally life-affirming. In a soft and ruminative mood throughout, Melbourne pianist Joe Chindamo reimagines eight arias from the Italian Puccini, said to be the most commercially successful composer in opera history. Chindamo says his purpose is “to reinvent the music in such a way so as to reveal an intimate quality inherent in the original work”. I hear this album as a work of superior jazz ballads and found it an utterly moving experience. Some of Puccini’s immortal melodies, which are dripping with beauty, seep through, but the most telling quality here is Chindamo’s ability to refashion the originals according to his own impeccable vision as an improviser. Accompanists include the brilliant guitarist Doug de Vries, bassist Ben Robertson, drummer Rajiv Jayaweera and violinist Nigel MacLean.

Eric Myers

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Pleaser.

ELECTRONIC/INDIE

Pleaser

Georgia Maq

Run For Cover/Poison City

★★★★

This foray into dark electronic pop marks a sharp left turn for Georgia McDonald, who fronts Melbourne punk band Camp Cope. But though she eschews her trademark clawing guitar and raging vocals, her unclouded emotional articulation comes through as loud as ever against prowling synths, brooding beats and shuddering bass. If the new setting takes some getting used to, McDonald taps ideal collaborators in heartfelt electronic outsiders Darcy Baylis and Katie Dey, while her singing soars to impressive new heights. And it’s not all programmed and processed: opener Away From Love comes laced with low-key guitar while You’ll Be Singing My Name opens with grounding piano. As in Camp Cope, McDonald distils nuanced feelings into flooring mantras, as on the title track: “I’m doomed to be a pleaser for you.” This work unpacks love in all its forms, from celebration to lamentation.

Doug Wallen

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Sing In A World That’s Falling Apart.

GARAGE ROCK

Sing In A World That’s Falling Apart

Black Lips

Fire Records

★★★

There’s no synthesiser bleeps or shiny production to iron out the ninth Black Lips album. Rather, the Atlanta country-blues-punk rebels have recorded direct to two-inch tape. A rollicking toe-tapper from go to whoa, the album champions the lap steel guitar, while the reverb-rich sound is the result of recording in a spacious Laurel Canyon studio rather than any fancy post-production. The quintet is known for delivering a raucous Southern blues-rock sound that is part punk, part hoedown. Here, strummy, sardonic track Gentleman is a punk anthem for a Texan pub: ”It’s getting hard to lie through my teeth because they’re rotted out and they’re not all there.” Live Fast Die Slow sums up their whole ethos, which seems to pivot on rum, banjo, bass and gap-toothed howls. Long may this group of crusty, country-punk rascals create music to get messy to.

Cat Woods