Halsey – “You Should Be Sad”

Today, we’re getting the first big A-list pop-star album 2020 in the form Selena Gomez’s Rare. Next week, we’re getting another one. That’s when Halsey, three years after 2017’s Hopeless Fountain Kingdom, is coming back with the new LP Manic. Halsey has already shared a handful advance singles from that LP: “Graveyard,” “Finally // beautiful stranger,” “SUGA’s Interlude.” Today, we get what will presumably be the last those singles. It’s a good one.

“You Should Be Sad” rides a spare, fleet acoustic guitar figure, and it’s a big, pissed-f ballad directed at an ex. (Halsey used to date G-Eazy, so we’re probably supposed to think that this is about him.) Halsey co-wrote it with producer Greg Kurstin. The lyrics are pretty withering: “You’re not half the man you think that you are / And you can’t fit the hole inside you with money, girls, and cars / And I’m so glad I never ever had a baby with you / Cuz you can’t love anything unless there’s something in it for you.” Damn! Put this one on the shelf right next to Kesha’s “Resentment” in your “pop stars making really good countryish ballads about relationship regrets” section.

Speaking country: The “You Should Be Sad” video is truly ridiculous. The clip comes from director Colin Tilley, one the best people working in the form right now, and it’s a pretty funny take on, I suppose, the yeehaw movement. In the clip, a barely-dressed Halsey leads a line-dancing party that rapidly descends into an orgy; the whole thing is just extremely horny. There’s also a bit where Halsey dresses up as Shania Twain in the “That Don’t Impress Me Much” video, which is pretty good. Check it out below.

Manic is out 1/17 on Capitol.