On January 17th, over two years since her last project was released, Halsey’s Manic came out. The album did well, and was generally liked by critics. The most popular song of the album was “Without Me,” which peaked on number one on Billboard. The album had a autobiographical theme, with lyrics like “Still learning,” “I should be living the dream/But I go home and I got no self-esteem.” The record sold 239,000 copies in the first week, landing on #2 Billboard. Featured artists include Dominic Fike, Alanis Morissette, and Suga of BTS.
The only reason Manic wasn’t sitting at the number one spot was because Eminem’s 11th album Music To Be Murdered By was released the same day, January 17th. The album sold a solid 275,000 copies during its first week to secure the number one spot on Billboard. This may seem impressive, but this album isn’t one of his bestselling records. Within the 20 song tracklist there are some features, and the most notable are Ed Sheeran and the late Juice WRLD. The most popular song from Music To Be Murdered By was “Godzilla” featuring Juice WRLD, which peaked at #5 on Billboard.
Justin Bieber is well known at this point in his career, and his fifth album Changes is a crossroad album for Bieber. Changes came five years after his last project, Purpose, in 2015. The album was released on Valentine’s Day, and the entire album seems to be dedicated to his wife. It wasn’t critically acclaimed, with Rolling Stone reviewing it as, “None of these songs are bad, exactly, but they’re almost universally forgettable.” The record has a sizable amount of features, including Ed Sheeran, Post Malone, Travis Scott, Summer Walker, and Kehlani. The most popular track was “Intentions” featuring Quavo, which peaked at #5 on Billboard. The album sold 231,000 copies during its first week, making its debut at number one on Billboard. Finally, was the word fans said as Lil Uzi Vert’s long awaited album Eternal Atake came out on March 6th. It had been two and a half years since his last album came out titled Luv is Rage 2, and since then he’s left fans eagerly waiting for Eternal Atake. Jesse Ballmer, a freshman here at Central, is a big Lil Uzi Vert fan. “I really liked Eternal Atake, especially in the middle.” Ballmer says. When asked if the album was worth the two and a half year wait, he responded. “I really enjoyed it when it came out. Luv is Rage 2 is good too, but Eternal Atake was definitely his best album.” Urgency with Syd was the album’s sole feature. “ It should’ve had at least a few features,” Jesse said. There were a lot of memorable tracks on this record, but Jesse’s favorites from the album were “Chrome Heart Tags” and “Celebration Station.” No album is perfect, and for Jesse, there weren’t consistently good songs on the record. “I didn’t really see any flaws, but I didn’t like some of the beginning songs.”
16 // BGQ // November 2020
