Halsey’s “The Great Impersonator” is one of the artist’s best releases

The Great Impersonator, pop singer Halsey’s fifth studio album, is a bold and introspective body of work that explores difficult topics such as mortality, suicide, chronic disease and abuse.

With extensive lyrics and impressive production quality, The Great Impersonator will likely go down as one of Halsey’s best albums to date, if not her best.

For many albums, talkativeness can be a fatal flaw; however, in the case of Halsey’s The Great Impersonator, the length and density of the album – which contains 18 songs and clocks in at over an hour – makes it even more masterful and offers listeners a personal insight into Halsey’s innermost feelings.

Many fans’ first exposure to “The Great Impersonator” came during Halsey’s marketing campaign.

Perfectly fitting for the album’s title, Halsey took to social media a few days before its release to share photos of herself impersonating artists who inspired her. Some of these notable influences include Dolly Parton, Kate Bush, Cher, David Bowie, Dolores O’Riordan, Stevie Nicks, Bruce Springsteen, Britney Spears and Fiona Apple.

In some cases, artists focus too much on marketing the album and the content lacks quality, but that was certainly not the case with Halsey.

Given the lighthearted marketing, it was a shock that “The Great Impersonator” was so incredibly raw and emotional. True to its premise, the album mainly focuses on Halsey’s lifelong struggle with her self-image and the desire to be different.

The album opens with “Only Girl in LA” with melancholy acoustic guitar lines and haunting vocals that immediately let listeners know that “The Great Impersonation” is not going to be a pleasant listen.

Featuring heavy lyrics like: “Every day I wake up with some new kind of suffering; I’ve never known a day of peace’ and ‘Every day I wake up and wish I was different’ – the song artfully explores the album’s main themes of impersonation and Halsey’s insecurities.

The album’s third track, “Dog Days,” marks a shift from Halsey’s descriptions of intense self-doubt to even darker themes, such as suicidal thoughts and feelings of worthlessness.

Over amazing acoustic instruments and stirring background vocals, Halsey sings, “I’m a loser, I’m a loner. Won’t you shoot me in the yard? Put me down like a lame horse or send me to the farm where all the dogs go.

Throughout the album, Halsey repeatedly shares her fears of never being loved, singing the same lyrics: “Please God, I want to be loved. I don’t want to be someone they want to get rid of” – in the fourth song “Letter to God (1974)”; track eight “Letter to God (1983)” and track seventeen “Letter to God (1998)”.

This fear is also expressed in the album’s eleventh track, “Darwinism,” with its powerful lyrics: “There’s a lot of fish in the pond. In the oceans and rivers and in all the waterfalls. But if I’m made for the land and not the sea. Could I crawl around and find some Neanderthal?

Halsey also describes her struggles with chronic illness, having been diagnosed with both lupus and a rare T-cell lymphoproliferative disease.

Throughout the album, Halsey expresses the immense anxiety and fear of living with these diseases, singing, “Please God, I don’t want to be sick” in “Letter to God (1983)” and “When I met you, I said I would never die , but the joke was always mine ’cause I’m racing against time” on the album’s sixth track, “The End.”

Of the wide range of difficult topics explored on the album, perhaps the most memorable is Halsey’s description of her childhood experiences with violence.

Describing the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, Halsey sings, “It’s strange how he’s gray now and he’s getting older every day and my eyes tell me he’s harmless despite what my heart says” and “I” will always be believe that every man who claims to love me has something up his sleeve” in “Hurt Feelings.”

This emotional confession forms the basis for “The Great Impersonator”, which explains the origins of Halsey’s struggles with self-esteem and the need to “impersonate” others due to the insecurities and trauma instilled in them from a young age.

The album’s final track – and title track – expertly closes the album with a repetition of the lyric “In here lies the great impersonator,” highlighting Halsey’s struggle for authentic self-love.

With its evocative production quality and striking lyrics, The Great Impersonator firmly cements itself as one of the best albums of 2024, as well as a beautiful addition to Halsey’s discography.

Rating: 4.5/5