This kind of skewed self-perception is interesting, but Halsey isn't necessarily adept enough in singer-songwriter mode to make a nuanced exploration of it. (Their best songs—”Without Me,” “You Should Be Sad,” “Nightmare”—are brilliantly effective and subtle, big feelings that lead to big payoffs.) On “Lonely Is the Muse,” they sing about being “ Alone and forgotten' as a muse for old artist friends. the verse is sharp and witty, and it's also one of the most impressive passages of pop this year:
I have inspired platinum records
I have earned platinum airline status
And I mined some diamonds
From the stories in my head
But I have been reduced to one body
Here in someone else's bed
The role of the muse in art has historically been one of reduction and objectification, but you'd be hard-pressed to suggest that Halsey is any kind of Dora Maar—Halsey is one of the most successful artists of her generation, and many of her greatest hits, like the absolutely brutal Hot 100 No. 1 “Without Me,” carry out character assassinations of former romantic partners with the precision of an MI6 agent. There is absolutely no convincing argument that G-Eazy's songs about Halsey are taken more seriously than Halsey's songs about G-Eazy, so you have to question the purpose and value of this song. is it to create a sense of victimhood? To make some listeners feel bad for not exalting her genius? There's no telling how one feels, obviously, but as a listener, it's jarring to hear a passage like this, whose indulgently sad veneer hides a convenient dismissal of the writer's agency and talent. Does Halsey see no irony at all in claiming to bear the weight of the expectations of millions of fans before, 40 minutes later, reducing her own performance to “two diamonds”?
It's hard to say, honestly, but a lot of them The great imitator feels like it's designed to position Halsey as a tortured, singular artist: Their status as a lonely oddball is invoked by “Darwinism,” a Radiohead-esque David Bowie tribute, and the PJ-inspired track “Dog Years” itself Harvey. one of the best approaches on the album. (It also contains a real sick pun: “I'm trying to be positive, but oh it's really hard.”) A beautifully designed publicity website for the album proudly notes that The great imitator marks the first time that producers Michael Uzowuru and Alex G, vocal producer Caleb Laven and engineer Sean Matsukawa have “worked together on a project since Frank Ocean Endless and Blonde“—a somewhat useless detail that really tells you that Halsey hopes you'll hear this as a great album. In fact, it's a big attempt at trompe l'oeil, the studio sounds and murmurs of between-take chatter carefully placed to make you feel like you're seeing greatness unfold before your eyes. An Alex G fan would recognize his presence here just because you can literally hear him speak in some songs. Other than that, the anonymous, polyester gets soft-rock and raw folk bear no resemblance to his own music The main musical discovery here may be that even children from Blonde might emerge as a When We Were Young replacement pop-punk band if they really tried.
