Halsey’s newest album is a brutal mirror into their soul…

If you’re not ready to get meta, then don’t listen to this album. You have to be ready.

Halsey (she.her/they.them) has dropped their fifth studio album, The Great Impersonator; the deepest, rawest cut of work they have crafted. Really – it’s a motherf*ckin’ doozy.

In 2016, she announced that she had been diagnosed with endometriosis. Then, in June of this year, they shared that they had also been “diagnosed with both…(SLE) and a ‘rare’ T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder” back in 2022. These are not the only hardships Halsey has had to cope with and face, and she’s only 30 years old.

Aside from seeking treatments, she wrote an album; an album that is so deeply introspective it might scare people who aren’t ready to explore their own selves that intensely. Yet, when your life is in the balance, there aren’t many other options. Halsey chose the best way – the harder way – for them to try and move forward with their life instead of running from it. And that is beyond admirable.

In the album trailer, they state that when they got sick, they began questioning everything. If life ended today, would she have done something different? Would she be proud of what she has built? What would her career have looked like in each decade ranging all the way from the 70s to the early 2000s? “Am I still Halsey every time? In every timeline? Do I still get sick? … Have I done enough? Have I told the truth?”

The first time I listened to this album as a whole, I was mostly hearing the artists that Halsey has shared have heavily influenced them and their sound in this new era. However, upon re-listening, I started to hear these songs as creations of her own.

A few of the celebrities with the track they inspired are below:

Cher sending a Letter to God

Stevie Nicks has a…

Aaliyah with another Letter To God (1998)

…and so many more.

Many of these names you know – they’re huge icons of times past and present – and some you may be more unfamiliar with, but Halsey didn’t do this for public acceptance. She did this for herself, and that’s what makes it beautiful.

The Great Impersonator definitely feels like a passion project. There are so many personal and very specific references that I do not get, but that’s okay. I don’t need to. Just like any other work of art, the songs that are meant to reach you – will. This album will connect with its intended audiences and hit each person differently with a unique tone every time. The songs that I felt reached out to me are (#3) Lucky, (#2) Lonely is the Muse, and Ego sittin’ pretty at #1. What are yours?

I’d heavily recommend watching the album trailer before giving it a full first listen. I did not and ended up feeling a little thrown and confused because of how vastly Halsey stretched in terms of ambition. But once I researched where they were coming from, it put the whole work in perspective. While the overall sound and vibe of this album isn’t for me (I kept feeling like many of the tracks didn’t build up to much of anything), I respect Halsey so wholeheartedly for successfully nailing this feat. What this album stands for is what’s relevant.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Check out the bonus track off this album: Alice of the Upper Class! There are four other new bonus tracks as well, but I think you have to purchase the album digitally four separate times (each signifying a different decade). Boo.

Rating: 3 timelines out of 5