Hopeless Fountain Kingdom: An Indie Pop Take On Romeo and Juliet
Halsey’s sophomore album “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom” was released June 2nd of this year, topping the billboard top 200 chart within days of the release. This album brought new sounds, and an entirely different vibe than her debut album “Badlands”. According to Halsey herself, during an Online Q&A on twitter, she said that the album had a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ concept of her breakup. she also features rapper quavo in one of her songs bringing out some of her Hip-Hop and R&B influences. There are so many aspects and complexities to this album, some tracks don't even include a huge lyrical component. This album is what many would call a concept album, the concept here being star crossed lovers being torn apart.
While Halsey wasn't a part of an intense romance that was pulled apart by a family feud, she did chose to creatively use a story based on her breakup in order to portray her feelings during and after the breakup. In “Romeo and Juliet” their families were the ‘Capulets’ and ‘Montagues’, while in Hopeless Fountain Kingdom the two lovers are luna and solis which literally translates to moon and sun! the houses are called aureum, which translates to golden and angelus, which is a catholic devotional prayer.
When you listen to the songs you get the story of two lovers from different worlds while at the same time you can hear her lyrically speak on her feelings post break up. For example, i'll start with the song “100 letters”. The lyrics that definitely represent the Romeo and Juliet like story would be “But he can make me golden if i just show some respect”. The reference to golden connects to the house of Aureum. while the line right after speaks on her breakup and her feelings more than anything else, which reads “I don’t let him touch me anymore, I said I’m not something to butter up and taste when you get bored”. She’s putting her foot down here and saying ‘you don’t get to play with my feelings and pick and chose when to love me’. Obviously it all connects, its almost as if this story of hers is a metaphor for her breakup.
Halsey talks about things like rendezvous with women, having sex to fill the void of loneliness, and really the inner parts of herself during the breakup. The reason this is unique is because typically when female singer songwriters write songs about breakups they really talk about the person who broke their heart. Even Halsey said she was tempted to write songs about him but she wanted it to be mainly about her feelings, not to bash the person who made her feel this way. she achieved this goal and made this album all about her and her experiences.
Now, as far as the sound is concerned it's very similar to halsey's normal style a part from a few songs such as “lie” and “Now Or Never”. “Now Or never” and “lie” had a lot of Hip-Hop influence to them, especially “lie” which features a rap verse from rapper Quavo. Halsey herself even said that the single “Now or Never” was the song she was most nervous about releasing because it was so different in style than her typical songs.
So generally, if you liked halsey’s original stuff you’ll fall in love with this album. The concept is extraordinary, the lyrics are phenomenal, and the sound is danceable and relatable. I personally am a huge fan, but if you'd like to see for yourself just listen to it on spotify and hear the mini story of luna and solis and the adventure of halsey's breakup.