Listen to Halsey’s emotive Nine Inch Nails-inspired new single, ‘Lonely Is The Muse’

Halsey has today shared an emotive new single called ‘Lonely Is The Muse’ – check it out below.

• READ MORE: Halsey on a year of ‘If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power’, covering Kate Bush & Bring Me The Horizon

Reminiscent of her work with Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, as well as Bring Me The Horizon, the track sees Halsey sing: “But I was built from special pieces that I learned how to unscrew / And I can always reassemble to fit perfectly for you / Or anybody that decides that I’m of use”. Blending rock and pop-punk, the track sees Halsey exploring themes of self-worth and trying to fit in.

The song was first previewed by Halsey during her headlining set at both Budapest’s Sziget Festival and Helsinki’s Flow Festival this summer. The gigs came just days before Halsey also premiered a different new track earlier this week at her secret underplay show at KOKO in London.

Check it out here:

 

Halsey  – who goes by she/them pronouns – had teased the intimate show just days in advance, sharing a tweet that read: “I’m in London, and I have a surprise planned for Wednesday. Feeling reaaaaaal nostalgic about it”. The update also featured a link to a phone number which fans were able to text for updates.

Taking to the venue for the first time since she was promoting her ‘Badlands’ album in 2015, Halsey has used the one-off gig to debut another brand new song called ‘Ego’.

The song came shortly before Halsey wrapped up the set with renditions of ‘Experiment On Me’ and ‘Without Me’. It also arrived shortly after the singer used their set at Sziget Festival to drop a different, rock-inspired new song.

Talking about the surprise new material in London, the singer said: “I’ve been teasing a new song for the past couple of days. You guys are the first people in the world to hear it… lowkey even before some of the people who work at the label.

“After the festival in Budapest, they were like ‘Hey, we’re not mad… but what the fuck was that?’. I was like, ‘Have you met me before? Does that sound like something that would be out of character for me to do?’ No, what you get is what you get.

“That song is coming out tomorrow night– it’s exciting right? How many of you guys were on to me and thought ‘She’s for sure going to play that new song’? You think you’re so fucking smart,” she continued. “I’m always one step ahead… Do you guys want to hear a different new song? This is new new.”

From there, the band launched into an uptempo acoustic guitar riff, with Halsey delivering some vulnerable, pop-punk-inspired lyrics about concealing deep-rooted sadness. It also seems more pop-inspired than their last album ‘If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power’.

At the Hungarian festival, Halsey played their latest single, the Britney-sampling ‘Lucky’, for the first time ever. Recently, she said she was “really nervous” about clearing the sample on the song, and said she “shared everything” with the singer throughout the creative process.

It came after Spears appeared to claim that she felt “harassed, violated and bullied” by their new video.

In a since-deleted post, Spears threatened legal action against Halsey and called her “downright cruel”, however, later walked back on the statement on X/Twitter, writing: “Fake news !!! That was not me on my phone !!! I love Halsey and that’s why I deleted it!!!”

In response, Halsey said: “I love Britney!!!! I always have and always will you were the first person who ever made me realise what it means to feel inspired. And you continue to inspire me everyday.”

Halsey has also teased that their new album will be “all over the place” and “full of experimentation”, and opened up about their “complex feelings” after suffering a miscarriage during a show in 2015.

The post Listen to Halsey’s emotive Nine Inch Nails-inspired new single, ‘Lonely Is The Muse’ appeared first on NME.