If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Halsey, released on August 27, 2021, by Capitol Records.

[2] Leading up to the release of If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power, a theatrical film directed by American filmmaker Colin Tilley, titled after the album and featuring its music, screened in select IMAX cinemas around the world on August 25 and 26, 2021.

If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised its ambitious concept and theatrical production.

[9] "I was just really honest and said I was a huge fan and I’ve been plagiarising you guys for years – badly – and I’m not arrogant enough to believe that I have anything new to offer you, but this album is about pregnancy, gender identity, body horror.

"[9] The album was a long-distance project, with Reznor and Ross recording in Los Angeles while Halsey sang all of its songs at a studio in Turks and Caicos Islands.

[11] In an interview with Lizzy Goodman at Capitol Studios, Halsey stated that she started working on the album in June 2020, and that "Lilith" was the first song written for the record.

My body has belonged to the world in many different ways the past few years, and this image is my means of reclaiming my autonomy and establishing my pride and strength as a life force for my human being.Halsey stated If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power is a concept album focusing on the positives and negatives of pregnancy and childbirth.

[25] The album was originally built around "mortality and everlasting love and our place/permanence", but the emotional impact of her pregnancy "introduced new themes of control and body horror and autonomy and conceit."

[29] The artwork was specifically inspired by the Virgin and Child Surrounded By Angels from Jean Fouquet's two-panel Renaissance oil painting called Melun Diptych, and became a subject of widespread attention and discussion on the internet.

[30] The Mercury News associated the artwork with the topfreedom movement on Instagram "#FreeTheNipple", and noted visual similarities to Cersei Lannister, a Game of Thrones character.

On June 28, 2021, numerous billboards went up across major cities of the United States, announcing the fourth studio album by Halsey, titled If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power.

[38] Halsey graced the August 2021 cover of American women's magazine Allure, for which she was interviewed about her social identity, relationships, pregnancy, and family.

[39] On July 23, 2021, an online game called "LXXXXP" was launched, which is a choose-your-own-adventure-style platform that encourages users to "choose your path and discover your destiny".

[43] An extended version of the album, featuring the 2019 single "Nightmare" as well as a reprise of it, and an exclusive track, titled "People Disappear Here", was released on January 3, 2022.

[55] "I Am Not a Woman, I'm a God" was released to US contemporary hit radio on August 31, 2021, as the lead single from If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power.

[20] Marie Oleinik, reviewing for The Line of Best Fit, dubbed the album a bold and ambitious work of art, with "gorgeous, intense" production that is "never overdone", and admired its simplistic and "breathtakingly tender" songs as well.

[13] Music journalist Jon Pareles, writing for The New York Times, said the album is a homage to Halsey's "1990s roots" and simultaneously a strategic turn toward archetypes, eschewing autobiographical lyrics.

[65] Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen of The Sydney Morning Herald wrote If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power is a "theatrical, grandiose listening experience" that works as a proclamation of Halsey's identity and artistic intentions, and complimented the sonic diversity of its tracks.

[67] Variety's Chris Willman picked the album's honest songwriting and alternative rock sound as its best aspects, emphasizing the creative chemistry between Halsey, Reznor and Ross.

Brown dubbed the album "a definite power-up", and suggested Halsey could have experimented more musically and lyrically, to "allow the songs to make a deeper mark".

Rolling Stone critic Julyssa Lopez wrote If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power is an adventurous, highly dramatic, and "supremely theatrical" album, that is slightly overwrought at times.

[66] Dani Blum of Pitchfork named the album the strongest project of Halsey's career, and praised its experimental production by Reznor and Ross.

[21] John Amen, writing for PopMatters, said If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power has some of the best songs and vocals of Halsey's career, but its "inaptly sleek" production undercuts her connection with listeners.

"[70] Kitty Empire of The Observer said the album's 13 tracks "don't quite live up" to the theme Halsey teased, a "Game of Thrones-meets-French Revolution-themed goth rock opera about the Madonna–whore complex.

In the United States, If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power arrived at number two on the Billboard 200, blocked from the top spot by American rapper Kanye West's Donda (2021).