Halsey The Great Impersonator

Critic's Take

Marie Oleinik argues that on The Great Impersonator Halsey flirts with ambition but too often collapses into imitation rather than revelation. The reviewer pins praise on sparser moments like “The End” and “Lonely is the Muse” where Halsey sounds truly herself, and damns lead single “Lucky” as a misfire. Oleinik’s voice is measured and admonitory, noting that the album’s concept - impersonating eras - mostly produces overproduction and referentiality instead of insight. For listeners searching for the best songs on The Great Impersonator, she points to the raw clarity of “The End” and the industrial-suited warmth of “Lonely is the Muse” as the album’s high points.

Key Points

• The End is the best song because its minimalism allows Halsey to sound authentic and emotionally clear.
• The album’s core strengths are moments of raw honesty and nostalgic production that suit Halsey, but these are overwhelmed by overproduction and referentiality.

Themes

Critic's Take

In a restless, self-reflective run through persona and pain, Halsey's The Great Impersonator finds its best tracks in moments of unmasked vulnerability - notably “The End” and “Panic Attack”. The record frequently leans on homage and production flourishes, yet songs like “The End” cut through with delicate, finger-picked intimacy while “Panic Attack” channels Stevie Nicks-inspired groove to powerful effect. Where impersonations register, they add texture; where Halsey is simply themselves, the album truly shines.

Key Points

• The best song is "The End" because its intimate, finger-picked arrangement and earnest vocals cut through the album's impersonations.
• The album's core strengths are candid storytelling and emotional vulnerability grounded in Halsey’s confrontation with illness and identity.

Themes

Critic's Take

Halsey frames The Great Impersonator as a wounded heroine who nevertheless delivers some of her most compelling songs, chief among them “Ego” and “Arsonist”. In the reviewer's voice, “Ego” is praised as a "wildly infectious tune" with a riveting crescendo, making it an obvious best track on the album. Likewise, “Arsonist” is singled out for possibly the most compelling verse of her oeuvre, which marks it as another top song on the record. The narrative positions these best tracks within a larger project about persona, illness, and empathic range, explaining why listeners searching for the best songs on The Great Impersonator will be drawn to these highlights.

Key Points

• “Ego” is the best song for its intoxicating, Alanis-like crescendo and infectiousness.
• The album’s core strength is its blend of exemplary pop hooks with literate, mythic, and empathetic lyricism borne of illness and persona work.

Themes

Critic's Take

Halsey's The Great Impersonator finds its best tracks in the bruised intimacies, particularly “Life of the Spider (Draft)” and “Hurt Feelings”, where raw takes and bridge-burning confessionals land hardest. The reviewer's voice lingers on the unvarnished single-take of “Life of the Spider (Draft)” and the gritty betrayal in “Hurt Feelings”, arguing these are the best songs on The Great Impersonator because they convert private pain into cinematic catharsis. Even when noting smaller flaws in songs like “Hometown” and the opening track, the critic keeps returning to how honesty and mortality make certain tracks indispensable. The titular “The Great Impersonator” is cast as a chilling coda, completing the album's emotional arc and cementing the best tracks as those that reckon with survival and persona.

Key Points

• The best song, "Life of the Spider (Draft)", is best because its single-take vulnerability functions as the album's emotional thesis.
• The album's core strength is its sprawling honesty about mortality, identity, and parenthood delivered through era-spanning pastiche.

Themes

Critic's Take

Halsey leans into mortality and mimicry on The Great Impersonator, and the review makes clear the best songs — like “Only Living Girl in LA” and “Lonely is the Muse” — carry the album with aching lyricism and theatrical wit. Victoria Wasylak’s voice is both clinical and affectionate, praising the album’s bigger swings - the grungy burn of “Lonely is the Muse” and the six-minute opener “Only Living Girl In LA” that tests the listener’s appetite for an hour-long, intimate farewell. She highlights how pastiche and homage succeed most when they become personal, pointing to the Springsteen nod in “Letter to God (1983)” and the Björk-tinged finale as moments where Halsey’s impersonations feel revelatory rather than merely imitative. The review frames the best tracks as ones where diary-like lyricism and bold stylistic shifts align, answering searches for the best tracks on The Great Impersonator with clear, enthusiastic examples.

Key Points

• The best song is the opener “Only Living Girl in LA” because its six-minute scope and candid lines set the emotional and thematic stakes.
• The album’s core strengths are its diary-like lyricism, theatrical pastiche, and willingness to confront vulnerability through genre shifts.

Themes

Critic's Take

Halsey’s The Great Impersonator mostly falters, but the review finds real sparks in tracks like “Lonely is the Muse” and “The End”. Shaad D’Souza writes with impatient clarity about mimicry and earnest confession, praising the concrete moments where Halsey turns inward rather than toward pastiche. For best songs on The Great Impersonator, the critic singles out “Lonely is the Muse” for its sharp verse and “The End” for its haunting, Joni-tinged folk lyricism. The verdict is that while the concept often smothers the record, a few tracks reveal Halsey’s stronger instincts when personal specificity wins out.

Key Points

• “Lonely is the Muse” is best for its sharp, witty verse and one of the most head-spinning passages in pop this year.
• The album’s core strength is Halsey’s ability to turn inward with concrete specifics, producing the most interesting and affecting moments.

Themes

Critic's Take

Halsey delivers on The Great Impersonator with songs that cut closest to the bone, particularly “Life of the Spider (Draft)” and “The End”. The reviewer's voice lingers on those raw, wordy moments as proof of Halsey’s honesty, and the best tracks on The Great Impersonator are the ones where personal trauma meets careful homage. If you search for the best songs on The Great Impersonator, look to “Life of the Spider (Draft)” for its devastating one-take and “The End” for its Joni Mitchell-inspired tenderness. The title track and “Panic Attack” also register as key moments, each balancing vulnerability with deliberate musical reference points.

Key Points

• The best song is "Life of the Spider (Draft)" because its one-take piano and vocal renders illness and fragility with devastating clarity.
• The album’s core strengths are candid lyricism and lovingly detailed production that lets tributes and personal trauma coexist.

Themes

Critic's Take

Halsey's The Great Impersonator is at once a bravely confessional record and a daring homage project, and the best songs - notably “Life of the Spider (Draft)”, “Darwinism” and “Lonely Is the Muse” - deliver the album's hardest punches. Chris Willman writes with wry awe about how those tracks function as mic-drop moments and emotional epicenters, balancing brutal honesty with artful musical callbacks. The result is an 18-song testament that rewards close listening and Kleenex-equipped devotion, because the most memorable cuts are the ones that marry raw lyricism with striking production choices.

Key Points

• “Life of the Spider (Draft)” is the album’s most devastating and talked-about song because of its raw demo intimacy and emotional intensity.
• The album’s core strengths are its brutal lyrical candor about illness and loss, and inventive musical homages that augment rather than overshadow the confessions.

Themes

Critic's Take

In his vivid, conversational voice Rob Sheffield names the best tracks on The Great Impersonator with feeling - chief among them is “The Only Living Girl in L.A.”, which he calls the album highlight for its Simon & Garfunkel-meets-1990s rave surprise. He also praises the era-warping “Letter To God (1983)” and the Bowie-tinged “Darwinism” for arresting moments of imagination. Sheffield frames these best songs as proof that Halsey’s time-travel conceit can jolt her toward new territory while still unmasking her darkest emotions.

Key Points

• The best song, "The Only Living Girl in L.A.", is the highlight because it marries intimate autobiography with an audacious sonic flip into glitch-core.
• The album’s core strengths are its era-hopping pop pastiches and raw, confessional vision that make Halsey’s identity crisis compelling.

Themes

Critic's Take

Halsey delivers on The Great Impersonator with songs that feel like confessions and pastiches at once, and the best tracks - particularly “Arsonist” and “Life Of A Spider (Draft)” - reveal the record's beating heart. The opener “Only Living Girl in LA” is small and vulnerable, while “Ego” flips to buoyant pop-rock chaos, so the best songs on The Great Impersonator sit where intimacy meets theatricality. In the reviewer's voice, it is Arsonist that shimmers most, its crackling textures and backwards vocals making it the standout, while Life Of A Spider (Draft) is the showstopping one-take that tears the heart out. Overall, the record feels like a vow against Hollywood's consumption, and those top tracks best encapsulate that reclamation.

Key Points

• Arsonist is best because its off-kilter textures and poetic vocals put Halsey’s voice and language front and centre.
• The album’s core strengths are its candid exploration of fame, strong one-take performances, and eclectic homage to influential artists.

Themes

Critic's Take

Halsey's The Great Impersonator feels like a candid self-portrait, its best songs carving tenderness out of mortality. The reviewers voice singles out “Only Living Girl in LA” and the surprising, poignant “Lonely is the Muse” as standouts, praising their empathy and stripped-back delivery. There is a recurring admiration for the three “Letter to God” pieces that thread the record, and the reviewer frames these as emotional timestamps charting illness and motherhood. Overall, the reviewer treats the album as one of Halsey's most interesting records, noting that its willingness to risk different sounds yields genuine emotional rewards.

Key Points

• The best song, "Lonely is the Muse", is singled out as the album's greatest and most poignant track for its sparse piano and empathetic viewpoint.
• The album's core strengths are its candid meditation on mortality and its stylistic range that create a compelling self-portrait.

Themes

Critic's Take

Halsey treats The Great Impersonator as a near-miss magnum opus, where impersonations of past eras become powerful tools rather than mere pastiche. The review leans into how tracks like “Panic Attack” and “Lonely Is The Muse” wear their Fleetwood Mac and dramatic flourishes as accessories, not disguises. Emma Wilkes highlights the album's heightened stakes after illness and personal upheaval, and explains why the best tracks on The Great Impersonator - notably “Lonely Is The Muse” and “Panic Attack” - reach astronomical, devastating effect. The voice is reverent and dramatic, insisting these standout songs lift the record into something close to triumph.

Key Points

• The best song, "Lonely Is The Muse", is best because it climaxes with swelling, darkly climbing drama that the reviewer calls "astronomical" and "devastating".
• The album's core strength is its era-hopping pastiche worn as accessories, turning homage into emotional resonance after personal and medical upheaval.

Themes

Critic's Take

In a voice that is often wry and candid, Halsey makes The Great Impersonator feel like a memoir of mortality and influence, with best songs such as “Only Living Girl in LA” and “Panic Attack” standing out for their blunt emotional toll. The record traffics in namedropping and homage but never loses Halsey’s personality, so the best tracks on The Great Impersonator read as personal reckonings rather than pastiche. The production nods to Bowie, Britney, Springsteen and Fleetwood Mac, yet songs like “Ego” and “Life of the Spider (Draft)” assert her voice through specific, revealing lines. Taken together, the album’s strongest moments are those where melody and confession meet, which is why listeners asking about the best tracks on The Great Impersonator should start with “Only Living Girl in LA” and “Panic Attack”.

Key Points

• The best song is the opening “Only Living Girl in LA” because it foregrounds Halsey’s dark humor and candid mortality-themed lyricism.
• The album’s core strengths are its cohesive concept of mortality and identity, and Halsey’s ability to channel influences without losing her distinct voice.

Themes