Halsey & The Great Impersonator: What Catharsis Through Art Feels Like. Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, more famously known for her stage name “Halsey” has always endowed her work with a heavy sense of personalization; whether that be her Tumblr blogs where she originally gained fame, her 2015 debut album “Badlands”, or in the collection of her published poetry within her book: “I Would Leave Me If I Could”, and her most recent release “The Great Impersonator” is no stranger to this alluring and inspiring element of her work. In order to do the album some justice, it is important to understand the framework in which Halsey was working under while constructing this piece of art. She had recently left her longtime partner, bore a son, and had multiple health scares, including a cancer diagnosis. Although Halsey is healthy and living a happy life today, the album is littered with laments and what if’s — reasonably so — as she navigated the possibility of orphaning her only child. Halsey, although having put out a rock album previous to this album’s release, was first and foremost a pop star, but she had always dabbled in other genres, such as in “Ashley”’s ‘you should be sad’, which has a melodic yet melancholic country twist on a breakup anthem. Halsey’s main inspiration for this album’s sound wasn’t to just create, it was to curate a blend of songs that resembled loosely the influences that helped her become so successful in her music career, ranging from Amy Lee of Evanescence to Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac, and even to Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie. Halsey’s prose shines the most superb on this collection, as her most interpersonal struggles are perfectly represented in songs such as “The End”, “I Believe in Magic”, and “Lucky”. Halsey takes brave strides toward grunge inside of “Lonely is the muse”, and even hints at her own musical talents inside of “Hurt Feelings”, a deeply sad yet relatable song for those of us who’ve struggled with parental abuse and neglect. Halsey’s expertise only continued to enrich as the years pass, and there were plenty of examples of that on this album. This is one of the most vulnerable and important albums I’ve yet to encounter, and I hope everyone listens to it with a sympathetic and sincere manner. Standout Tracks: Ego, Panic Attack, Lonely is the Muse, Arsonist, Hurt Feelings, and Lucky.