4 out of 5 stars

Halsey released hopeless fountain kingdom, her second concept album, on June 2, combining fresh pop hooks and a dystopian flair with an edgy take on the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet.

The Halsey has evolved from the angsty twenty-something she was when she first made her way to the top 100, but her self-confident attitude and unwavering ability to tell a story remain prominent in her new album.

The story of an East coast lost soul that Halsey started in Badlands is far from over. The mournful romance continues, beginning this time with a haunting recitation of the beginning lines from Romeo and Juliet.

After setting up HFK as a tale of two star crossed lovers, “Bad at Love” solidifies her mantra with the lines, “ I know that you’re afraid I’m gonna walk away each time the feeling fades.” Though Halsey is still devoted to crafting stories with her albums, HFK takes on a life of its own with fresh new influences.

Instead of keeping up with the gloomy, sultry tones of her debut album, Halsey seems to have taken a lot of inspiration from her recent collaborations with the Chainsmokers, adding new repetitive hooks to her narrative style. As an artist, she has stuck with her bad girl from Jersey image and simply remixed it with new age beats.

More upbeat tunes highlight the album, directly contrasting the melancholy, grungy feel of her last album, but maintaining the romantic, relatable lyrics that pulled youthful, heartbroken listeners into her first release in 2015.

“Halsey strips down musically to lean on her voice in the vulnerable piano ballad ‘Sorry,’ where she worries whether she’ll ever like herself enough to let anyone get close to her,” Rob Sheffield said in his Rolling Stone review of the album. While like Badlands, HFK is a concept album, it gives listeners a more personal point of view of Halsey’s tale.

Contrasting with her typically unapologetic nature, “Sorry” gives a gut wrenching taste of the woman behind the synth with a pairing of sorrowful lyrics and longing, gritty vocals.

From echoing love ballads that show off her powerhouse vocals to bops with infectiously repetitive pop hooks, hopeless fountain kingdom has a little bit of everything and seamlessly launched Halsey into the lighter side of the pop genre.

This shift in tempo worked seamlessly for establishing Halsey as a pop music powerhouse. Since it was released, HFK has remained at Number 2 on iTunes with its first single, “Now or Never,” also holding the Number 2 spot on iTunes’ Top 40 songs.

Though Romeo and Juliet’s romance ended with woe and sorrow, hopeless fountain kingdom will have anything but an unfortunate end.