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TRIGGER WARNING: DEATH AND ILLNESS ARE DISCUSSED IN THIS REVIEW
Life imitates art, and imitation is said to be the highest form of flattery. But how do you disassociate from your projected identity, when faced with your own mortality? On their fifth studio album, The Great Impersonator, Halsey reckons with how their public persona has over time taken centre stage, whilst Ashley [the singers birth name] reckons with a harrowing health diagnosis - being diagnosed with lupus and navigating their T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder. “I spent half my life being someone else… if it all ended right now, is this a person you’d be proud to leave behind? Is it even you?” they ask on the albums trailer.
Having made their debut ten years ago, Halsey is one of contemporary musics finest chameleons. On a surface level, the singer has become known for their vibrant hairstyles, avant-garde make up designs and fashion forward looks. However, the ever-changing state of Halsey is driven by their fearless sonic choices. Leading the charge with their infamously Tumblr aesthetic debut album Badlands, the singer then pivoted from the electropop-meets-dark pop sounds of that record into an R&B-infused palette on their follow up, hopeless fountain kingdom. From there, Manic cascaded into mainstream pop, folk and country, before delivering one of the decades most defining records with If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power - an alt-rock feast produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
In the lead up to the release of The Great Impersonator, Halsey has teased its genre-bending exploration with The End [folk], Lucky [2000’s pop], Lonely Is The Muse [hard rock], Ego [pop-punk] and I Never Loved You [80’s pop]. Furthermore, the singer delivered one of the most engaging campaigns for the album, impersonating their own idols, who in turn inspired songs on the record. However, The Great Impersonator is tied together by the art of Halsey; conceptually driven compositions that are anchored by aching honestly and soul-baring songwriting. Here, she explores self-described “space between life and death,” and almost dismantles the legacy of Halsey to leave behind a body of work that honours both the artist, and the person behind it. Having debuted in the 2010’s, the album recontectualises the singers career into four different decades and offers a glimpse into what kind of artist Halsey would be if they debuted in the 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s or 2000’s. The homages to Dolores O'Riordan, Cher, Stevie Nicks, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, David Bowie, Amy Lee, Britney Spears and themself to name a few, allow Halsey to dissect their own life through the lens of the idols that helped shape the singers own artistry and fuel the albums concepts of differing decades. This ambition is what binds the album as a Halsey record.
Opening in the 1990’s with The Only Living Girl in L.A. and Ego, the former is a despondent song that outlines the perils of stardom. When they sing the line “do you think they’d laugh at how I die?,” a laugh rings that is echoed in Lucky, foreshadowing the tale that is to come. The track also launches into the dichotomy of Ashley vs Halsey, “And if I ever try to leave behind my body well, at least I know it was never minе.” The song details the weight the world has on the singer, and their intense intuition when it comes to feeling emotions. On Ego, Halsey wrestles with killing off the parts of them that feed into the downside of life in the spotlight.
The record is also laced with moments of guilt, regretting past decisions and thoughts. On Letter to God (1983), they hint at thoughts that arose during their younger years and ponders if those thoughts have caught up to them. “And I don't wanna blame the child, but I have to speculate If this could all just be an answer to thosе prayers that came delayеd. Because I never would have said it if I knew I'd have to wait until the moment I was happy, then it all disintegrates, and I'm singin’.” Throughout the album, the singer references a number of animals; their pet dog, spiders, horses fish and deer. They look at these animals as almost forgotten creatures, overlooked and left behind, mistreated throughout their time on earth. “Put me down like a lame horse,” they sing on Dog Years, hoping for a mercy killing to end the pain. The album homes a trilogy of songs, all titled Letter To God; but characterised by three individual timestamps. The songs document their varying thoughts on mortality and sickness, divided into three moments within their life.
One of the albums most successful ‘sound-alike’ moments arrives in Panic Attack, the Stevie Nicks inspired track. Here they compare falling in love with the anxiety and unease that arises during a panic attack. Warm and vibrant instrumentation harks back to Fleetwood Mac’s seminal classic record, Rumours. On The End, Halsey documents their illness in heartbreaking detail, from initial doctors appointments to the fear of starting treatment - all whilst falling in love but fighting back the feelings to spare both parties. I Believe In Magic is an ode to the singers infant son, who is credited on the song as a writer and performer. Here they wonder what the future will hold for him, and cross references their own relationship with their mother.
As we enter the albums second half, there’s a shift from brighter sonics to a darker palette. Darwinism is led by a haunting piano melody and beguiling production, that fuses together influences from David Bowie and Radiohead - creating one of the albums most gripping moments. The songs mid-section is reminiscent of 2020’s Forever ... (Is a Long Time), where a new realisation takes over and diverts into new thoughts. Another standout moment is the Evanescence-inspired Lonely Is The Muse. Feeling like a reprise of the singers work on their previous record If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, the hard-rock cut continues Darwinism’s engaging nature and provides one of Halsey’s best vocal performances. Here, they showcase the grumbling lower tones of their range, before erupting in an almost screamo climax. The whispered vocal performance on Arsonist lures you in, juxtaposing a more spatial and atmospheric soundscape with poet like lyricism that details the demise of a relationship. The song finds them longing to be free of their former lover, waiting for their DNA to exit their system. They continue to explore the pain inflicted from their past relationship on Life Of A Spider (Draft). The one-take piano-led song is perhaps the albums most emotional moment, driven by turmoil. They detail the emotional abuse dealt by the hands of another, whilst they spent their days fighting for their life through illness. The song offers Halsey’s most raw and emotional performance to date, embedded with an ache in their voice that hurts the soul to listen to. There’s a dichotomy between Life Of A Spider (Draft) and I Never Loved You, with the later freeing a former lover of their sins in the aftermath of a death.
Elsewhere, there’s echoes to their own older work on the record. Nashville brings back the country twang of 2020’s You Should Be Sad. Hurt Feelings - a song that documents the singers own changing nature, and the cyclical nature of their relationship with their father - harks back to Roman Holiday. Earlier in Arsonist, Halsey refers to themselves as “water.” Here in Hurt Feelings, they state “blood is thick, but water is forever,” perhaps foreshadowing the legacy of their own music; or coming to the realisation that our greatest triumphs are our own and, in the words of Taylor Swift, “you’re on your own kid, you always have been.”
Any Halsey fan knows the singer has yet to have a title track featured on an album. The closest would be hopeless fountain kingdom’s closing song, Hopeless. With The Great Impersonator, that has all changed. Inspired by Björk, the epilogue finds the singer naming themselves as ‘the great impersonator.’ “Does a story die with its narrator?,” they ask, capturing the albums core themes of mortality and legacy. With only months until 2024 comes to a close, Halsey has firmly released one of the year’s most captivating and honest bodies of work, narrating the complexities of death and heaviness of illness. Steve Lawson is credited for the phrase “Life is short, death is sure,” but it is Halsey who has walked the line and bared their soul to create an everlasting piece of art - that will live forevermore.
The Great Impersonator is out now!
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