Halsey revealed the cover of her upcoming album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the pregnant pop star strolled through an exhibit of religious icons in complementary attire. She arrives, finally, at a giant canvas, which features an image of the musician, topless, holding a child.
“This album is a concept album about the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth,” Halsey wrote on Instagram Wednesday. “It was very important to me that the cover art conveyed the sentiment of my journey over the past few months. The dichotomy of the Madonna and the Whore. The idea that me as a sexual being and my body as a vessel and gift to my child are two concepts that can co-exist peacefully and powerfully. My body has belonged to the world in many different ways the past few years, and this image is my means of reclaiming my autonomy and establishing my pride and strength as a life force for my human being.”
She continues: “This cover image celebrates pregnant and postpartum bodies as something beautiful, to be admired. We have a long way to go with eradicating the social stigma around bodies & breastfeeding. I hope this can be a step in the right direction!”
A clean version of the album art was also made available to streaming services, who have been given the option to use either the original cover or edited version. (In the edited iteration, the baby sitting on Halsey’s lap covers her left nipple.)
If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power — which was produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross — drops on August 27th, following 2020’s Manic. The musician announced her pregnancy with Alev Aydin earlier this year.
VIDEOS
Aesop Rock raps like not many others can and he's asking outsiders to "Send Help" for those that can't on his latest single. Well, he's not actually doing that, but he's definitely lyrically stunting on everyone on it. It's the second offering from his next thematic adventure, Black Hole Superette.
It's due out on May 30 and will try to successfully follow up on his 2023 masterclass that is Integrated Tech Solutions. This will then end his longest drought of not dropping a project in nearly a decade. From 2016 until 2019 was the length of that gap. However, he did make a soundtrack all by himself in 2017 for the film Bushwick.
The other track that Aesop Rock treated us to was "Checkers" back in early April. Black Hole Superette "delves into the invisible forces that shape our lives and psyches. It’s about the small, often overlooked moments—the everyday experiences that blur the lines between the real and the unreal, waking and sleeping."
If there's anyone who can make the mundane feel interesting and intricate, it's Aesop Rock. But as we alluded to earlier, "Send Help" feels more like one big rhyme flex. But it's done with needlepoint precision. "Pigeon on my shoulder like a goth Rio / The putdown Picasso here to un-massage the ego / I'm friend or foe depending on the content in your keynote / And not above the lobbing of a rotten tomatillo." Spin it below.
Quotable Lyrics:
Whodunnits and cozy mysteries, who stole the crypt keys
Who showed the minions to the minced meat, it was me
Hut-hut, helmet off, blitz the whole bitstream
Override the A/V in, with A/V out the in-between
IV in, one of Epi, onе of Ralph Steadman
Phoebe Judgе, EPMD, The Amazing Kreskin
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