Halsey - The Great Impersonator (Deluxe)

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I love the new songs on the Deluxe version of Halsey’s The Great Impersonator. In my opinion, these bonus tracks are better than most of the original album tracks.

Lucid is a catchy song that seems at first to be about drugs, but maybe it is more accurate to say it is about getting in someone’s head to the point where they only think about you. The title “Lucid” means being “thinking clearly” so the person is sober, but likely driven to obsession. At the end of the song, she sings the lyric “Gonna make you lose it” meaning the person finally loses control of their mind.

The second bonus track is called “Carry the Weight.” It is about getting over a break up and choosing not to be sad about it anymore. This is made most obvious with the lyric “And by the time you’re forgiven / No, you won’t even recognize me” The other person who was in the relationship seems to be suffering even after it is over, but Halsey is facing it realistically and moving on. As the song says, she “could run away” from the problem, but isn’t, and she is “not gonna stay” sad either.

The third bonus track “Lessons” is filled with references to movie making. Based on the chorus, it seems to be about trying to keep it together in real life and acting as though everything is okay. In therapy, people learn skills to get through the challenges of everyday life. These are probably the “Lessons” she is talking about. You repeat mental exercises “again and again” when you are panicking, such as counting or reciting phrases, until you calm down.

“Afraid of the Dark” is about trying to fit in and being afraid of being alone. She says “I am if you are / I’m whatever you are” with a sort of desperation in her voice. In addition, she talks about being spineless and unable to stand up for herself. With the lyrics about hiring a band and sitting on a dance floor, along with the album title, maybe she feels like she is impersonating a “normal” person while being a famous performer.

The fifth bonus track is an upbeat song called “Alice of the Upper Class.” It also seems to be about Halsey's struggles with being famous. She says she is “tired of the upper class” and that she is “an imposter.” It is probably exhausting for her trying to keep up the act of being like everyone else who is famous. There are a lot of references to flying on an airplane, which is a situation where you can’t just get off when you want to. And she makes it clear that she wants to get off the plane with the lyrics “You gotta get me off this plane” and “I wanna go back” and near the end of the song, “I crashed.”

“Nothing!” is about feeling like you have nothing because you can’t make up your mind about who you want to love so you try to love everyone. Perhaps, you have too many friends but none of them are real relationships of value. She says at the end, “This new type of love just isn’t for me / I can’t belong to someone.” She is probably afraid of trusting someone completely with her heart so she avoids serious relationships.

“Charades” is my favorite bonus track on this album and it happens to be the final one. It is about keeping things to yourself and not being able to find the right words to say most of the time. As most of us know, when you bottle things up, they eventually “come out strong.” She asks “Can you see that I’m bleeding on the stage? / Can you feel the things I’m screaming even when i cannot say?” Charades is a game where you have to express yourself without talking and other players have to guess what you mean. I think Halsey used this title because she is expressing her deepest feelings in her songs and she wants people to understand them without having to explain it to them directly.

Halsey - The Great Impersonator on Amazon