Few recording artists can claim a more arduous rise to stardom than Ashley Nicolette Frangipane — better known by her stage name, Halsey. Born to young Catholic parents in 1994, Halsey’s life before fame was characterized by constant movement, mental disorders, familial disownment, homelessness and a series of abusive relationships. Her life after releasing her first album, “Badlands,” — though it was an instant success — was equally wrought with trials: a miscarriage, more mental health crises and several distressing medical diagnoses.
This collection of hardships serves as the backdrop for Halsey’s fifth studio album, “The Great Impersonator,” released on Oct. 25. An instant success with fans and critics alike, this concept album wrestles with Halsey’s search for identity, hidden behind mediocre impersonations of past and present musical artists. While the lyrics are saturated with personal experience, the style and genre of each song pay homage to different artists who have influenced Halsey’s psyche.
Halsey attempts to share personal pain using the voices of famous figures.
She falls short in this respect.
The album opens with a tribute to Marilyn Monroe — who Halsey previously deemed the “most impersonated woman in history.” While Halsey’s voice is pure and haunting — a near match to the indie folk and grunge-pop genres evident in her fourth studio album “If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power” — the style is an interesting choice considering her goal to impersonate the 1950s icon.
The subsequent songs journey into the world of alternative and grunge-rock with tributes to Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries and PJ Harvey. Though there is a slight tonal downturn in the background vocals and instrumentation, Halsey’s voice remains the same — almost herself, but not quite.
The fourth song on the tracklist is the first of three entitled “Letter to God,” which collectively serve as a thread of narrative continuity throughout the album. While all three letters have unique verses chronologically portraying her life experiences, the choruses are eerily similar, each Halsey’s earnest cry to God during these tumultuous circumstances.
“Please God, I want to be sick/I don’t want to be hurt, so get it over with quick/Please God, I wanna be loved/I don’t wanna be somebody they wanna get rid of,” Halsey sings in the first iteration, “Letter to God (1974).”
The song, meant to be a tribute to Cher, poignantly portrays Halsey’s childhood as marred by domestic disputes and neglect.
The young Halsey just wanted God to take her away.
While her lyrics are harrowing, Halsey’s lackluster impersonation of Cher detracts from their power. It was as if Cher was doing a convincing impersonation of Halsey, not the other way around.
Personal lyrics lose their power when sung by a different voice. The voice is not Cher’s, and it is not Halsey’s. It does not know whose it is.
A 28-year-old Halsey dealing with a miscarriage, endometriosis and a recent Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) diagnosis did not know who she was either. In “Letter to God (1983),” Halsey pays homage to Bruce Springsteen with vocals that sound more like Dolly Parton than her tribute to the country star does in a subsequent song.
This time, Halsey cries out to God saying, “I don’t want to be sick” and “I don’t wanna be somebody you’re tryna get rid of.”
She no longer wants God to take her away; she wants him to want her.
Halsey’s heartbreak and struggle with her identity in God and music continue throughout the rest of the album. Her Stevie Nicks imitation felt closer to an adequate “Speak Now” era Taylor Swift while Amy Lee sounded like 2002 Avril Lavigne.
Her strong suit is not impressions, but Halsey does excel in crafting weighty, gut-wrenching lyrics.
“I believe in magic, and I believe in sin/I still believe in Heaven, if they’ll never let me in/I started to believe in love the day I met my little twin/I think I might start tryin’ because I haven’t been,” Halsey sings in “I Believe in Magic,” a tribute to Linda Ronstadt.
After the birth of her son Ender in 2021, Halsey’s struggle with identity and physical health intensified.
She had to try harder with God for him. She had to try harder to get better for him.
Though the song does not sound like Linda Ronstadt, it does sound like pain. And that makes it sound more like Halsey.
By hearing her pain, I heard my own. I thought of my past struggles with physical health. I thought of the MRIs. I thought of the medicine. I thought of the nights I spent crying out to God to take my agony away. I thought of the malignant belief in the back of my brain telling me that he was too far away — that I would never make it to him. I thought of dying.
God brought me through that dark period using others and their love for me. God gave me people to live for who already lived for him.
Halsey now has her son.
In her final iteration of the trilogy, “Letter to God (1998),” it is clear that Halsey has started to try.
The song starts out with Ender’s toddler voice playing with the microphone, babbling about “mommy’s singing.” Halsey then takes the spotlight, softly repeating “Please God, or whoever you are” over and over again, cutting into the heart more and more each time.
The familiar chorus begins as usual, this time expounding on Halsey’s fear that God will take her child — somebody she doesn’t “wanna get rid of” — away.
However, where the last two letters repeat the chorus twice, Halsey deviates to a unique line.
“Please, God, is it busy up there?/You took a little while to respond to my prayer/Please God, no, this doesn’t seem fair/I’m tryin’ not to show it, but I’m terribly scared,” Halsey sings.
Halsey is afraid of God.
She is afraid of what he can do, and she is afraid of who he is. Her voice is raw, littered with emotional cracks and eerie humming. It is not an Aaliyah tribute by any means.
It sounds like a tribute to Halsey.
And Halsey is at her most powerful when she is not trying to be somebody else. Halsey is her strongest when she is wrestling with her identity in God, not hiding her identity behind the voices of others.
I implore Halsey to keep struggling. I implore her to keep grappling with complicated questions about God’s character and nature. But I ask that she does so as herself, not as lukewarm versions of eighteen other artists. Because if Halsey engages with these issues as herself, she may finally discover her identity and God’s.
