Halsey has released a new pop/rock/punk banger titled “Lonely is the Muse”. This track makes me, as a person in the age range 22-30, pretty nostalgic. Even to someone that had a front row seat to the wave of pop punk songs released in the 2000’s, the track still feels fresh. Halsey delivers heart-wrenching vocals, mixing smooth harmonies with her lead vocal which at some points also goes over into screaming. The backing music is basic instruments, but very well played. Drums, guitar and bass. The distorted guitars are not taking over, but are filling up a lot of empty room just on their own.

The track can be likened to artists like Evanescence. I feel like that is an easy pick and some of you may have a better alternative. Halsey has been experimenting with different styles lately. Recently, she released an indie-folk song titled “The End”. Following, a more pop inspired Y2K track titled “Lucky”. I think it is great that artists are allowed to experiment. Now more than ever I feel like artists will be able to get away with rapidly changing genres. The upside is the freedom this brings to the artist. The downside of course being, fans might be less loyal at this current point in time. No, I do not have empirical evidence for that. 

The track is remarkably similar sounding to a pop/punk song that you would have heard in the 2000s. I think the production team has done this intentionally. I am not just talking about the choice of instruments, melodies and so on, but also about the actual mix of the song. A lot of songs that try to bring back specific genres will use modern mixing techniques. Like artists re-doing motown style RnB/Soul music, but using top tier technology that they didn’t have back then. It will just not sound the same. I think a lot of artists are fine with that, but it is very cool to see someone go full-hearted into bringing back a specific sound. Lonely is the Muse surely uses a lot of modern techniques as far as mixing the track, but it has masked them remarkably well. 

I think this track is a great display of bringing musical history back to life. This track is labeled as “indie/alternative” by a lot of people. I think that shows how forgotten this type of music has become. Someone from the younger generation is at this point not likely to go and listen through “Fallen” by Evanescence. Halsey might have given them a great track and also an entry point into discovering the history of songs behind the song. You should give it a spin and see if it does something!

Author: Peter Källman

Peter Källman is a writer from Sweden who loves playing in bands, writing reviews and going to live shows!