Halle Bailey’s debut solo album, Love?…Or Something Like It, opens like a fairy tale. “Once upon a time, there was a young girl who believed in love,” Halle narrates, as cinematic strings play softly beneath and echoes of her celestial ad-libs soar in the background.
Her speaking voice sounds measured, with a tone that feels more reflective than present. By referring to the protagonist as “a young girl,” she creates a subtle distance that foreshadows a metamorphosis.
“She had the spirit of a ram and the voice of an angel,” Halle continues, before essentially describing her as a hopeless romantic who “believed everyone belonged to someone” and longed “to find the truest form of love.” Ending with the rhetorical question, “Was that ever possible?” Halle lays the foundation for a sprawling story ahead.
Across the album’s 15 tracks, Halle embarks on a quest to find and hold onto love before it eventually slips away. When love is lost, she’s left to make sense of what it all meant and how it shaped who she is today. She explained in a statement, “The album traces the arc of my journey—falling headfirst into the euphoria of connection, giving all of myself to someone else, and then when it’s all over, wrestling with the question: was that really love, or just something like it?”
Halle understands the power of community and connection. As personal as this album is, she doesn’t navigate her emotions alone. She calls on a few collaborators to help drive the album’s theme home, including her big sister Chlöe, H.E.R., Mariah The Scientist and GloRilla. Behind the boards, she worked closely with producers D. Phelps (Leon Thomas, Giveon), Dem Jointz (Janet Jackson, Rihanna), Bongo ByTheWay (Mary J. Blige, Jazmine Sullivan) and Needlz (Bruno Mars, Cardi B), to help color the progressive R&B album’s sonic world.
Easing in with “Overtime,” Halle trades her signature airy vocals for a more resonant delivery with her lower register. The song’s vivid lyrics sort of outline the album’s thesis. She chronicles the transformation of an innocent — albeit green — woman who “was way too easy to fool” until betrayal awakened her. “This is how a good girl never came back / She was watchin’ how you did her and she never came back,” Halle hauntingly sings.
From there, a burst of confidence is felt in the GloRilla-featured “Know About Me,” where Halle goes from a rap-sung cadence to fluttering falsetto without missing a beat. Bongo ByTheWay’s trunk-rattling production nods to the Atlanta-born singer’s Southern roots. “I’m no angel, but this halo give you wings,” Halle sings, giving a clever wink to her son, Halo. GloRilla’s verse is the track’s pain point, bogged down by a flat delivery and weightless bars. Halle could’ve done without a feature or chosen someone who sounded more creatively inspired. Still, those 50 seconds aside, “Know About Me” knocks hard enough to get people on their feet.
“Heaven,” co-written by Sevyn Streeter, is full of bliss and wonder with splashes of intimacy. The tropical-leaning production, enhanced with faint bird chirps and natural ambience, is the kind of song a couple would play on vacation. “Touchin’ on your body / Gets me out of body,” Halle coos over a rhythmic backdrop.
The album takes a nosedive into the abyss midway through with “Interlude 2,” which is part narration and part dramatization. “I only got to know one side of you / This other side, I’ve never known / He’s not nice like you,” says Halle, before a heated exchange centered on infidelity unfolds. “No, you’re not gonna treat me like I’m desperate,” she says pointedly to her partner over the phone before he hangs up on her.
“Alone,” featuring Mariah The Scientist, immediately follows the argument. The forlorn piano ballad is underscored by a fast-ticking clock baked into its production, which sparks a sense of urgency — almost anxiety — as the walls of isolation begin to cave and the longing for connection intensifies. “I don’t like to be alone without you,” Halle sings with a theatrical falsetto. Mariah The Scientist approaches her verse from the perspective of someone hooked on what turned out to be a placebo: “You were a drug, I was a patient / You filled all of my prescriptions.”
Halle and Mariah The Scientist’s collaboration feels more intentional than one might expect: Both R&B artists have navigated public relationships that sparked extensive online discourse and, in many cases, scrutiny. It’s why “Braveface,” the final pre-release single, hits home. The vulnerable track, co-written with RAYE and Lekan, paints a vivid picture of Halle, even at her lowest, having to compartmentalize her emotions to keep going.
Although the diaristic lyrics reveal what lies behind the facade — insecurity, agony, helplessness — there’s a strong sense of empowerment present. “Braveface” is the kind of song you play while staring in the mirror, ready to conquer the day. The mantra-like chorus, which features additional background vocals by Lekan, could easily fit on Chloe x Halle’s first album, The Kids Are Alright.
Speaking of the dynamic duo, “So I Can Feel Again” brings the sisters back on the same track after a year, following “Want Me.” Both songs operate on emotional dependency, but whereas “Want Me” yearns for acceptance, “So I Can Feel Again” craves comfort. On the somber, ash-colored production, Halle wrestles with the urge to give in to what already hurts. She knows any interaction with her ex would take her back into their ruins. But there’s a magnetic pull between keeping her guard up and letting it down, while longing for that old spark. “I know that I’ll just want to run away / And I’ll be begging you to stay / So I can feel again,” Halle sings in the chorus. Chlöe enters in verse two, cautioning, “Don’t call up my phone / ‘Cause when I hear your pretty voice / I’ll probably fall all over again.”
After powering through her emotional ballad “In Your Hands,” Halle links with H.E.R. for “no warning,” which breaks from the tears to indulge in light toxicity. “I love to drive you crazy / I love makin’ you afraid / Wanna play those twisted games with me?” Halle smirks.
When the dust settles, Halle finds herself back in her feelings. She doesn’t hold back on the blues-coated “Bite Your Lip,” where she admits she isn’t ready to let go of her estranged lover. “I need your arms to hold me tonight / Don’t give up, give in,” she pleads.
The album wraps up with the previously shared singles “Angel” and “Because I Love You.” Regarding the latter, which she also co-wrote with RAYE, Halle explained, “‘Because I Love You’ is a song for anyone who has been deeply in love. It’s an anthem that tells the story of all of the beautiful passion and euphoria you can feel with that person.”
With Love?…Or Something Like It, Halle doesn’t strive for revelation. There isn’t a grand reveal to the question posed in the title, leaving it open to interpretation. Instead, she roots herself in love’s contradictions (the gleam, the gloom, the gray) as a way to understand herself better. By the album’s final line and cliffhanger — “all because I…” — Halle is no longer the ingénue at the fairy tale’s beginning, but a transformed version of herself. This collection of songs became the catharsis she needed to enter her next chapter, a sentiment she affirmed in a recent interview with Scott Evans: “I feel better. I feel clearer. I feel stronger. I feel like I’m now entering into a new phase of my life.” It seems Halle did find her happily ever after, within.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Stream Halle Bailey’s debut album, Love? …Or Something Like It, here.
