Music Review: “Alone” Remix
Over the weekend, a new song popped up on my Spotify Discover Weekly playlist. It was a remix of Halsey’s “Alone,” featuring Big Sean and Stefflon Don, which first appeared in her album “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom.”
Halsey has been one of my favorite artists for a while, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a remix featuring Big Sean and Stefflon Don. Big Sean is a crowd favorite with his recent single “Bounce Back,” while Stefflon Don is one of my new interests that I have been looking out for since the release of her single “Hurtin’ Me,” featuring French Montana.
Intrigued by the collaboration, I listened to the song and ended up enjoying the remix even more than the original version. The first version of “Alone” is a heavy song on its own, but in the remix, Big Sean uplifts the low background tones while Stefflon Don adds a smooth intermission between the second verse and the chorus. The artists’ contributions lighten the entire mood of the song.
“Alone” is a number about an unnamed socialite’s troubles surrounding the loneliness and frustration that fame brings, and it includes allusions to the Romeo and Juliet theme Halsey followed throughout the Hopeless Fountain Kingdom album.
“I rarely do collaborations or add features to songs. These guys took this song to a new level.”
The first verse, “She said she told you she knows me, but the face isn’t right/She asked if I recognized her and I told her I might,” is an example of the socialite’s frustration of people using her fame for surface level friendships. In this case, a stranger claims to know the speaker for her own benefit, but the speaker does not recognize her.
The pre-chorus also adds to this idea of the socialite being unable to find true friends. The lyrics, “See, everywhere I go/I got a million different people tryna kick it/But I’m still alone in my mind,” displays the loneliness the speaker feels behind the facade of friendships people see.
After the first repetition of the chorus, Big Sean’s feature comes in with reassuring lines that display support for the socialite in the midst of troubling relationships. In his verse, he raps, “You know I relate to you more than a fan/So I won’t sit around and let you sink in quicksand,” in reference to the shallow friendships which make her feel alone.
Stefflon Don’s feature is more light-hearted, with her lyrics showing a carefree attitude towards what people think. Her foreign accent, which comes from her Jamaican and British roots, also gives an interesting feel to the music.
As for the Romeo and Juliet theme that coincides with the Hopeless Fountain Kingdom album, the bridge of the “Alone” remix references the armor that appeared in the movie “Romeo + Juliet” starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The lines “I, I know you wanna/Slip under my armor,” tie the song’s idea of fame versus reality with the armor in the Romeo and Juliet allusion.
The “Alone” remix is one of Halsey’s first releases since her album last summer. Moving forward, I hope that this song inspires Halsey to continue featuring other artists in her work to give a fresh new twist to her music. On Twitter, Halsey expressed satisfaction with the way the remix turned out, writing, “I rarely do collaborations or add features to songs. These guys took this song to a new level.”