More than a week after teasing her forthcoming album If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, Halsey has revealed the album cover, the release date and…a lot more! In a 13-and-a-half-minute long video posted to the singer’s official YouTube channel, a very pregnant Halsey wanders the Metropolitan Museum of Art dressed in a saffron colored cloak over a shimmering silver halter gown with a neckline that defies the word plunging. She pauses before paintings and relief sculptures depicting mothers and infants, including images of the Madonna and Child.
Ultimately, she poses before a massive canvas draped in deep crimson fabric, pulling it away to reveal the album cover: a portrait of Halsey seated on a throne, a crown on her head, a baby on her lap and her left breast exposed.
“This cover image celebrates pregnant and postpartum bodies as something beautiful, to be admired,” the singer, who is expecting her first child, wrote in an Instagram post. She also revealed more details about the themes she’s exploring in the new music. If I Can’t Have Love… is, she explains, a concept album about “the joys and horrors of pregnancy and childbirth.”
“It was very important to me that the cover art conveyed the sentiment of my journey over the past few months,” the statement continues. “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.”
As previously reported, Halsey teamed up with Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for the new album. The Grammy– and Oscar-winning producers’ work on the album made headlines last week and hinted toward a darker, more intense sound from Halsey. The album drops August 27.
