Room 93 by Halsey // 10 Year Anniversary Album Review
In an interview with All Things Go Music in 2014, Halsey described the concept of Room 93 being inspired by her time living in a hotel room for the year spent making the EP. "I've formed romantic relationships and business relationships and friendships out of hotel rooms. What's weird about them is it’s like a stage setting, a fake place. It’s not a real environment," she said. "The EP is a narrative about how in a hotel room, because of the forced intimacy, you can either really be yourself for a bit or you can really be someone you're not. So it's about human relationships under the scope of that lab rat mentality, or security cam mentality."
Certain visual themes shine through in this music; it's almost as if you're transported to the grunginess of Brooklyn, or under the neon pink glow of the motel sign in the middle of the night. It is all just so cinematic and filled with deeply honest storytelling. She always knew how to curate an immaculate and cohesive visual aesthetic surrounding her music that only further enhanced her influence. To this day, their ability to craft an entire visual universe alongside the music itself is still one of Halsey's biggest strengths as an artist - which she continues to showcase again and again. Especially even just this year with the release of their fifth album The Great Impersonator, she truly takes us all back to the beginning and totally breaks down the last decade of their life and career in a way like never before.
Much of Room 93 focuses on her whirlwind romance with a rockstar boyfriend that was as toxic as it was passionate. In more ways than one, Room 93 walked so The Tortured Poets Department could run. She sings about her love of the "sad eyes, bad guys, mouth full of white lies" - which is a common theme behind every song, but more importantly serves as a vulnerable depiction of who Halsey is at their core. She continuously asserts her independence and confidence throughout these five songs and establishes herself as a new, fresh voice in the industry. Much of Room 93 is also a testament to how ahead of her time Halsey is and always has been.
Halsey's first single, "Ghost", was released independently prior to signing to Astralwerks to release the other four songs. The format of the song has always been so captivating, especially when looking back at the state of pop music in 2014, it was just so different than anything I had ever heard before up to that point. From the first few seconds of the song, the listener immediately gets sucked into the story behind it. It begins at the bridge, then moves into fast-paced almost sort of rap style verse - it is kind of a whirlwind to listen as it only lasts about two and a half minutes and has a lot of moving parts to it. It kind of breaks all of the traditional pop songwriting "rules" that were basically the standard in the early 2010s. This song ended up shaping a lot of the music Halsey would go on to make, because at the time she never recorded in a professional studio before or wrote anything other than acoustic songs. Also to start off her very first single with the line, "I'm searching for something I can't reach", is just such a perfect way to begin this musical journey that she has been on ever since. "...It ended up just being like my signature," they said in their 2014 Spotify commentary of the song, "It was like how I knew what the Halsey project was gonna sound like".
Hearing this EP for the first time at 15 years old was so transformative for me and even though it is only about 17 minutes long and just 5 songs, looking back it really did shape so much of who I am and my music taste from that point forward. I mean, there was just no one cooler than Halsey at the time - which honestly is a statement that I believe is truer about her now a decade later than it was even back then. This EP preceded their debut full-length album Badlands, which was released the following year and very much follows many of the same themes that Room 93 presents. Even more so Badlands is an album that totally changed my life, which is a story for another time, but if you were a teenage girl when this album came out I think the connection to that album is pretty universal. If you know, you know!
There was a cultural shift starting to happen with this new wave of specifically female artists that came in the industry and completely flipped what the idea of a traditional pop star should be and could be in the modern internet age of music. Lana Del Rey and Lorde come to mind right away as two artists that just a couple of years prior kicked off this new movement of the early 2010's alternative pop scene. They were making music that held much darker undertones while sharing their unfiltered life experiences in a way that was so different than all of the overly polished pop music playing on the radio at the time. Halsey was definitely at the epicenter of this counter-culture movement herself and was a major force in this first wave of the Tumblr era of music. Without the major influence of an artist like Halsey in the early 2010's, the music landscape would be completely different today.
Throughout the past decade, Halsey has never succumbed the pressures of the music industry to conform, change or silence herself, even during the periods of time that she was receiving massive mainstream attention. In their music, Halsey is the same person she has always been and has always stood for the same artistic principles. That is so inspiring to see someone continuously stand so firm on their beliefs and not really care what anyone thinks of it. Halsey has always made a point throughout all of their music to break down gender roles and societal expectations that are far too often placed upon women. Especially through the lens of her as an artist in the music industry, there is often this expectation upon women in particular to not write about certain topics to avoid being deemed impolite or unladylike by the [male] audience. In an interview with All Things Go Music, Halsey opened up about the undertones of Room 93 and her willingness to break down those walls in her music in an effort to be as autobiographical as possible, regardless of how it would be perceived. "There are also a few undertones and subplots. One of them is crossing gender barriers, because I talk about drugs and sex and things male artists can sing about and they’re edgy and romantic and emotional, but as soon as a female artist talks about it, it’s like 'Shut up, that’s unladylike. We don’t want to hear that.' But I don’t care," she said. "That’s what my life is like and that’s what I’ve experienced and that's what I want to talk about."
The first track titled "Is There Somewhere" beautifully sets the tone and atmosphere for the rest of the EP. The song takes place in room 93 itself, fully immersing the listener into this intense and complicated love that bloomed in this hotel room between her and this poetic figure. "I promised myself I wouldn't let you complete me", she sings in the first verse. Both are holding on even though they know it's not going to last forever, or even outside of the confines of this room. It is such an incredible song and so deeply honest and personal in the way she vividly recounts this time in her life. "I'm sorry, but I fell in love tonight, I didn't mean to fall in love tonight, you're looking like you fell in love tonight, can we pretend that we're in love?" she sings in the songs final lines of the song.
One of my favorite songs they have ever made is "Hurricane". I view it now as the thesis of everything that Halsey is and stands for in her work. To even just declare "I don't belong to no city, don't belong to no man" at nineteen years old is so bold and a message that really stands out to me as the overarching theme of her entire career. To have the foresight and confidence to have written a lyric like that on her first ever release is so powerful and truly admirable. The storytelling aspect of "Hurricane" is also so vivid too, the grunge and grime of New York City is ever present, and I love how specific she is with the details. It's also just such a timeless song that stood the test of time so well. It really does feel just as relevant now as it did back then.
I had the chance to hear "Hurricane" live for the first time ever when she performed a special hometown show in Newark, New Jersey back in summer 2023. It was the encore of the night and truly felt so incredibly surreal to hear the song that I have loved for so long performed in that setting with a gorgeous live string ensemble. That night was also my first time seeing Halsey live ever, so it was all very emotional to get to hear all of the music that played such a big part of my life for so many years in a setting like that.
The final song on the EP brings the themes of Room 93 full circle in a lot of ways from where we started with "Is There Somewhere". "Trouble" is a stripped-down piano ballad, which is a major departure from the other four songs on this EP as well as the majority of Badlands that followed. It is also the heaviest song on Room 93 as she opens up in detail about the complexities of this toxic relationship that she references often throughout these songs. Again, a lot of this EP is about her being unafraid to share her honest thoughts and experiences, completely unfiltered regardless of how dark it can get. Their voice somehow simultaneously maintains a level of fragility and power as she sings on "Trouble". In their interview with All Things Go Music in 2014, Halsey continued to talk about how it was important for her to not write from the perspective of a victim in this situation and that she is the only one who has the power in her own life. "Although a lot of my songs talk about this hopeless romantic situation or a masochistic or sadistic relationship, there is always a point of triumph in every lyric that implies that I can leave if I want to. I am not a victim," Halsey said. "No one is taking advantage of me or hurting me or abusing me, no matter how things may come across in the songs. I’m an equal player in this game."The principles of Room 93 went on to define much of Halsey's work going forward as she grew and evolved as an artist. A decade later, Halsey continues to be among the sharpest and strongest creative forces in music today. This EP continues to stand as a testament to the artist she was and continues to be. With Room 93, she told us "this is right where it begins" and has only continued to build upon the foundation of that promise a decade ago.
If you would like to read more about Halsey's music, check out my amazing experience seeing her with a live string ensemble in 2023 and check out my (upcoming) review of the incredible The Great Impersonator. Many more are linked below and coming soon! Thanks for reading! I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!
Photo Credit: Halsey, Astralwerks
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Halsey with Live String Ensemble in Newark, New Jersey
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