If Halsey's The Great Impersonator project comes off as defensive, it's because they've earned it. Their debut album, Badlands, came out almost 10 years ago, but Halsey has yet to be fully received with the kind of gravitas one might reasonably expect after a decade-long career. This goes back to the start. Early single "New Americana," an earnest (for better or worse) song about a particular kind of millennial experience, was received as Girls-esque parody. A claim went around that Halsey identified their sexuality and neurodivergence with the flippant label "tri-bi," a rumor Halsey called "the dumbest shit I've ever heard." And scads of early press profiles likened them to "a millennial grown in a lab" and "a superstar you can own" – dismissive, boomeresque takes that have nevertheless stuck to Halsey ever since. Even their creative breakthrough, the 2021 Trent Reznor collaboration If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power, had a nagging undercurrent of reality: coincidentally or not, their music was never fully taken seriously until a male auteur got involved.
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On The Great Impersonator, Halsey Gives Us Their Whole Self (And Several Other Selves Too)
