My Night at Halsey's 'The Great Impersonator' Listening Party (Spoiler Free)

Only 100 fans have gotten a very early sneak peek of Halsey's upcoming album, and I was lucky enough to be one of them.

Halsey’s upcoming fifth studio album “The Great Impersonator” has quickly become one of my most anticipated albums of the year, and I was lucky enough to be 1 of 100 people who got a VERY early listen. Let me just start by saying “great” is a complete understatement. (Spoiler: I loved it)

I’ve talked about how this is one of my favorite concepts I’ve seen an artist do in a long time so many times on my podcast, and I’ll admit when she began releasing the singles without the album title or concept I was confused at the completely different sounds she was bringing to the table, but now that we know more about the project I am completely sold.

Now, before we get into the sound of this album - this is going to be completely spoiler-free. If you’re looking for the titles of the tracks or specific lyrics, you’ve come to the wrong place. Though she only asked us not to share information about one particular track, I think this album is going to be best experienced with absolutely no spoilers and expectations (sorry 🫣).

Here’s what I will say…

About the Night

The event was hosted at the Midnight Theatre in New York City, “a state-of-the-art performance venue in the heart of New York’s Manhattan West Plaza” and we were all greeted with 1 of 5 posters for us to take home at our seats (the standard album cover and the four other variants, I went for the Y2K poster).

Halsey started the night by expressing how eager she was for any of her fans to hear it and had been pestering her label over and over to let her do an event because of how excited she is/was for any of her fans to hear it. During the songs, she grabbed a seat in the audience and listened with us, and then would take the stage to discuss a little bit about what we just heard and what to expect in the next song she’d be playing. One of my favorite details of the night was how they changed the album covers being projected onto the walls to match the “era” we were in. Something about seeing her dressed in the corresponding variant helped us envision who was singing the song - whether it was ’70s Halsey singing the song she wrote “For the fans” or ‘80s Halsey singing the song about “not learning your lesson as you age”.

You could really tell how proud of this project she is by the way she talked about each song and the project as a whole. Now, let’s get into the music.

The Writing

I’ve always thought Halsey’s writing was great, but this album is to a whole new level. She’s more real and raw than she’s been on any other album because of all the things she’s been through in the last couple of years. She repeated over and over that when she was writing this album, she wasn’t sure if anyone would hear it because she didn’t know how long she’d be alive (heartbreaking, I know) BUT that’s what makes it so personal and raw.

She’s covering deep shit on this album - feeling like a burden in a relationship, rocky relationships with your parents, losing people in your life, the list goes on. Still, she said that listening back to these songs she wrote when she was so low and at such a bad point in her life is just a reminder that the next time she’s feeling low, to remember that she’s gone through this before and will be okay again.

I have to say my favorite part of the night was when she asked the crowd “How many people here are the oldest daughter?” and nearly fell to the ground when 75% of the room raised their hands. “I write music for the oldest daughters…I’m going to remember that moment for the rest of my life.”

The Production

Every. Single. Sound. that you hear on this album is perfectly placed and thought out. She shared that during the recording for the 70’s tracks on the album she went to Valentine Recording Studio because she wanted to capture the essence of this period in time by using instruments and recording devices from 40+ years ago, and it was well worth it.

Each song has such a unique sound that truly feels like it was released during its respective era (70’s - 2000’s). Not every song is going to be everyone’s favorite, but there’s a favorite song for everyone. She perfectly spanned so many genres and eras while still creating a cohesive project, which is probably the most impressive thing to me.

Overall, this album is absolutely living up to my (very high) expectations. You can truly tell how much of Halsey’s heart is in this project and I’m so happy she’s sharing it with the world.

‘The Great Impersonator’ drops October 25th and is available for preorder and pre-save now!