This type of skewed self-perception is attention-grabbing, however Halsey isn’t essentially deft sufficient in singer-songwriter mode to drag off a nuanced exploration of it. (Their finest songs—“With out Me,” “Try to be unhappy,” “Nightmare”—are ultra-efficient and bulldozer-subtle, massive feelings leading to massive payoffs.) On “Lonely Is the Muse,” they sing about being “lonely and forgotten” because the muse for previous artist boyfriends; the refrain is sharp and witty, and it’s additionally probably the most head-spinning passages in pop this 12 months:
I’ve impressed platinum information
I’ve earned platinum airline standing
And I mined a pair diamonds
From the tales in my head
However I’m lowered to only a physique
Right here in another person’s mattress
The muse’s position in artwork, traditionally, has been considered one of diminishment and objectification, however you’d be hard-pressed to counsel Halsey is a few sort of Dora Maar—Halsey is among the most profitable artists of their technology, and plenty of of their greatest hits, just like the completely brutal Sizzling 100 No. 1 “With out Me,” perform character assassinations of former romantic companions with the precision of an MI6 agent. There may be completely no convincing argument to be made that G-Eazy’s songs about Halsey are taken extra significantly than Halsey’s about G-Eazy, so you must surprise concerning the function and worth of this track; is it to conjure a way of victimhood? To make some listeners really feel dangerous for not exalting her genius? There’s no accounting for the way somebody feels, clearly, however as a listener, it’s jarring to listen to a passage like this, whose indulgently unhappy veneer hides a handy rejection of its writer’s personal company and expertise. Does Halsey see completely no irony in claiming she bears the burden of tens of millions of followers’ expectations earlier than, 40-odd minutes later, lowering her personal output to “a pair diamonds”?
It’s arduous to say, in truth, however a lot of The Nice Impersonator does really feel prefer it’s designed to place Halsey as a tortured, singular artist: Their standing as a loner weirdo is invoked on “Darwinism,” a David Bowie tribute that appears like Radiohead, and the PJ Harvey-inspired lower “Canine Years,” itself one of many album’s higher approximations. (It additionally incorporates a real clunker of a illness pun: “I’m making an attempt to B optimistic however O it’s actually arduous.”) A properly designed publicity web site for the album proudly notes that The Nice Impersonator is the primary time producers Michael Uzowuru and Alex G, vocal producer Caleb Laven, and engineer Sean Matsukawa “have labored collectively on a venture since Frank Ocean’s Infinite and Blonde”—a considerably ineffective element that solely actually tells you that Halsey is hoping you’ll hear this as a Nice Album. In actuality, it’s one massive try at trompe l’oeil, its studio sounds and mumbles of between-take chatter fastidiously positioned to make you’re feeling such as you’re seeing greatness conjured earlier than your eyes. An Alex G fan would solely acknowledge his presence right here as a result of you may actually hear him speaking in a few songs; other than that, the nameless, polyester takes on soft-rock and uncooked people bear no similarity to his personal music. The primary musical discovery right here may be that even the blokes from Blonde can churn out When We Have been Younger substitute band-worthy pop-punk in the event that they actually strive.
