Halle Bailey has been on our screens for years, but in 2025 she took the time to focus on her story. Bailey released her debut album love?… or something like it, and using her Beyoncé influence, created an R&B opera that leaves listeners feeling entangled in her pain.

Listeners are drawn in the second the project begins. It opens with the words “Once upon a time.” The layers of her story are merely unpeeled here. It is not until the listener is met with her operatic voice that you begin to understand how she was seduced by love.

She sets listeners up to fall in love with her standards as an independent young woman, but quickly the standard falls and turns into pure bliss. Have you ever been so blinded by love that you’d allow anything to happen?

Well, Halle did—until she had a reawakening moment in Interlude 2. Interlude 2 begins to address the downfall of what the public may have believed was a perfect relationship. What once appeared polished begins to show the cracks beneath the surface.

Songs like “Know About Me,” “His Type,” “So I Can Feel Again,” and “Angel” depict the emotional rollercoaster experience love can take you on.

Overall… love?… or is it?

Overall way, this project receives 4/5 Cre8tive Points for storytelling and the burning nostalgic feeling of your first love. Halle seduced the audience and broke our hearts all in 41 minutes.