Hopeless Fountain Kingdom

Recording information: Conway Recording Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Echo Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Elysian Park, Los Angeles, CA; Sole Studio, London, UK; The Beehive, Van Nuys, CA; Westlake Recording Studios, Los Angeles, CA.Halsey opens Hopeless Fountain Kingdom by reading a passage from William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, a sign that she's intent on achieving grand things with her second album. The time is right for a great leap forward. Badlands, her 2014 debut, established Halsey as a possible contender for Lorde's brooding throne, but she received her breakthrough singing on the Chainsmokers' smash 2016 single "Closer." Both events inform Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, which casts a far wider net than Badlands. Where that album essentially dedicates itself to EDM-inspired pop, Hopeless Fountain Kingdom uses that sound as an anchor that allows Halsey to dip her toe into stark singer/songwriter confessions ("Sorry"), hip-hop ("Lie," featuring a verse by Quavo of Migos), soul ("Alon