Self-Proof by the Great Impersonator: The Great Impersonator / HALSEY [Disc Review 37]
Halsey is a singer-songwriter from Edison, New Jersey. Her real name is Ashley Nicolette Frangipane.
She began her career in 2012 and has built her path by crossing through pop, electronic, alternative rock, and R&B.
The Cure, Alanis Morissette, and Nirvana—from her mother's roots—along with The Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac—from her father's roots—form the foundation of her music.
She has cited bands like Panic! At The Disco and Brand New as those that changed her life, and she has consistently maintained a stance of consciously moving between the boundaries of pop, rock, and Black music since her debut.
From 'Badlands' (2015) to 'Manic' (2020), she steadily increased her sales, and with 'If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power' (2021), she made a major turn toward a dark industrial sound, welcoming Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross of NIN.
As for 'The Great Impersonator' introduced here, she was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus) and a T-cell lymphoproliferative disorder during the time leading up to its release, and she continued recording while battling the illnesses.
'This might be my last album'—that resolve flows quietly, yet surely, at the foundation of this work.
The Great Impersonator, her fifth career album, was released by Columbia Records on October 25, 2024.
The concept is the question, 'What if I had debuted in different eras from the 70s to the 2000s?'
While weaving in homages to diverse artists such as Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, and Britney Spears, she adopts the sound of each era while re-examining her views on life and death, her identity as a mother, and her struggles with fame.
It is a record that could be called a 'spiritual reckoning' of her career to date.
Favorite Track 1: 'Ego'
An upbeat pop-punk track centered on an homage to Dolores O'Riordan of The Cranberries, it features a driving bassline and jangly chords that race forward.
In the verses, she rattles off lyrics in a rapid-fire style close to rapping, while in the chorus, the mood shifts to a sweeping, poignant melody. That contrast creates a unique tension throughout the song.
The theme of the lyrics is a battle with the self: 'Kill your ego before it consumes you.'
The struggle of balancing her life as a public figure with the private reality of suffering from a serious illness is etched in words stripped of all ornamentation.
This song functions as an anthem not just because of the strength of its melody, but because that cry is released from the very edge of a true breaking point.
Favorite Track 2: 'Lonely is the Muse'
Built on poetry written by Ashley, this track intersects goth rock, industrial pop, and alternative rock, with an homage to Amy Lee of Evanescence as its axis.
With intense guitars, dark rhythms, and heavy vocals layered together, the sound itself takes the shape of anger.
The lyrics confront the anger and emptiness of being continuously used and turned into a symbol by others as a female artist.
Even if you keep chipping away at yourself to provide work, in the end, you are only recognized as a convenient 'image' for someone else—this is a song that strikes out against the structure of exploitation like a scream.
The divergence between the self as an artist and the image created by fame. She has sealed that disconnect within a dramatic progression.
'The Great Impersonator' is not a work of imitation. While wearing the clothes of the 70s through the 2000s, what burns inside is unmistakably the anger, pain, and attachment to life of Ashley Nicolette Frangipane herself.
By borrowing eras and wearing the forms of others, her own outline emerges all the more clearly. This was a self-proof by the 'Great Impersonator' that no one else could imitate.