On October 25, 2024, Halsey released her highly awaited fifth studio album, titled The Great Impersonator. With 18 songs in total, each takes inspiration from different iconic artists from the 1970s to the 2000s, including David Bowie, Kate Bush, Björk, and many more, according to various social media posts by Halsey.

In the official trailer for the album, Halsey talks about how her life has changed because of her various illnesses and wonders what would happen if she debuted in the 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, or 1970s instead of 2014. This album is a mix of pop, rock, and alternative songs. Here are my top 5 tracks from the album, in order from worst to best.

5. Letter to God (1998) is a song inspired by Aaliyah. As you may have guessed from the title, in the song, she is singing out to God, saying how she doesn’t want to die and lose everything, as she has been diagnosed with many illnesses, including lupus and leukemia (according to a social media post by Halsey). This is one of the more downbeat songs of the album and the lyrics convey a sense of gloominess and despair. This is definitely not a song to listen to when you’re in a good mood, but a lot of creativity went into it and I believe that it’s a great song.

4. Lonely is the Muse is an alternative rock song inspired by Amy Lee. In this song, she sings about how she feels like a creation that other people have built and how she can change to fit what anyone wants of her, but she feels as though she doesn’t have her own identity through that. “I was built from special pieces that I learned how to unscrew,” she sings. “And I can always reassemble to fit perfectly for you / Or anybody that decides that I’m of use.” This is a song that has a very emotional meaning and it’s directly shown.

3. Life of the Spider (Draft) is an alternative song inspired by Tori Amos. It is a blatantly depressing song, where she talks about how she feels broken and miserable. It intentionally sounds lower quality which possibly led to the insertion of the (Draft) in the title. The song sounds unfinished, almost like she’s playing it straight from her piano for the first time, but it still conveys metaphors about her life and how she feels related to spiders in some way, like when she sings “Trapping me forever between a glass and a dinner plate.”

2. Lucky is a pop song directly inspired by Britney Spears’ song of the same name. It is the most upbeat song of the album, but it still has a very deep meaning. Just like Spears’ song from 2000, she talks about how she’s lucky she’s famous, but she is still sad inside. It almost sounds happy until you listen to the lyrics. If you want a non-depressing sounding song from this very depressing, but good album, this is the one to listen to.

1. Ego is a pop-rock song inspired by Dolores O’Riordan. In this song, their is a great contrast between the beat and the lyrics. The beat is fast and something that you could dance to, but the lyrics, again, are meant to convey pain. If you didn’t listen closely, you would think of it as just a song that had little meaning, but it’s so much more complex than that. In the song, she talks about how she’s not happy as a person and wants to kill her so-called “ego”. This is the best song from the album because of the catchy lyrics and rock chorus.

Overall, this album was unusual for Halsey, not just because she’s pulling from multiple genres and decades, but also in the lyrics and downcast songs. Most of the songs did not sound extremely depressing, but the lyrics conveyed otherwise. I would give this album a 7/10 because even though I liked many of the songs, other songs, like I Believe in Magic, were not the kind of music I prefer. I think many people saw this album and thought it would be just another fun Halsey album, but they were then proven otherwise, including me. The depressing tone of this album can make it hard to listen to sometimes, but not every artist has to be in a joyful mood all the time when that’s not what they’re truly feeling inside. I commend Halsey for putting her true emotions into this album, which required a lot of vulnerability and bravery.