Halsey experiments and shapeshifts as she tells her most personal story yet on epic fifth album, The Great Impersonator
Halsey thought they might run out of time to make their magnum opus. It’s a staggering thing for an artist to have to contemplate as they cross the bridge from their twenties to their thirties, but after a long streak of foul luck that saw them get dropped from their label and separate from the father of their son, there was another more existential, scary twist of fate coming. She was diagnosed with both lupus and leukaemia, later acknowledging after both illnesses went into remission that she is “lucky to be alive”.
As such, everything on The Great Impersonator feels heightened. This, after all, could have been her last gasp as an artist. These high stakes are matched with a grand concept, where the New Jersey artist imagines themself as an artist from different eras – ‘70s, ‘80s, Y2K – but their impersonations are fairly subtle. There’s the gently vintage Fleetwood Mac-esque Panic Attack, the country-flecked Dolly Parton homage Hometown and the ‘00s time capsule that is Lucky (even sampling the Britney Spears song of the same name), but these are worn not as disguises, but as accessories. This is not imitation, but inspiration, and it reaches astronomical heights on the rocky tumult of Lonely Is The Muse, which darkly climbs and swells before dovetailing to devastating effect.
They might claim to be an impersonator, but this is still unmistakably Halsey’s story. With acoustic guitar and piano frequently inviting themselves into the background of her narrative, she conjures a remarkable intimacy as she sings, as if she’s sitting opposite you recounting these stories with a mug of something warm in hand. 'Frankly, to be alive shouldn’t kill me every day the way it should,' she admits on the humble yet candid Only Living Girl In LA, while The End sees two separate stories of new love and illness weave around each other as she recalls having 'finally found a lover who’s better for my liver/And now I’ll finally recover.'
The Great Impersonator is heavy, and it is long. Reaching the end of its 66-minute run time gives the same soporific, weary feeling as eating two roast dinners in a row. It perhaps didn’t have to be so lengthy, especially when it’s made dense by a surplus of delicate ballads that sound just a tad too similar. However, its concept, eloquence and even just its sheer emotional weight all serve to make this record special nonetheless, both for its quality and as a document of Halsey’s survival.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: PVRIS, Mothica, Twenty One Pilots
The Great Impersonator is out October 25 via Columbia
