Halsey Teases Her Nine Inch Nails-Produced Album With Fuzzy Rock Snippet
An online game tied to pop star Halsey’s upcoming Nine Inch Nails members-produced album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, has revealed what’s believed to be a brief preview of a track from the set. It certainly sounds like something helmed by the NIN bandleader Trent Reznor and his musical partner Atticus Ross.
That’s because the 20-second excerpt is all languid fuzz bass and overblown drums in a slow rock dirge (albeit, sans vocals) that sounds remarkably unlike past Halsey work — even her pop-punk duet with Machine Gun Kelly — and a lot like one of the austere contributions Reznor and Ross have made to film.
Down toward the bottom of this post, listen to the snippet dubbed by Halsey fans “You Drowned in a Freezing Lake” after the in-game action that uncovers it, in the absence of a known song title.
Listeners found the audio clip in LXXXXP, the choose-your-own-adventure-style Halsey game that, as NME pointed out, encourages users to “choose your path and discover your destiny.” Players begin by selecting six pictures from a series of images bearing captions such as “The Watchful Owl” and “The Royals Plotting”; once chosen, the user receives their “destiny.” One of the possible outcomes, per Twitter account @HalseyUpdates, displays the “You Drowned in a Freezing Lake” result.
A Halsey movie also called If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power will accompany her new album and features further Reznor and Ross work — see the trailer below.
Halsey and Nine Inch Nails first hinted that they would team up on a project together in separate social media posts last month.
The new Halsey album comes out on Aug. 27; the film will emerge around the same time.