Review Summary: Fallenmania, Part 33
Today’s album is special, because it’s the 33rd to appear in the series, it’s kind of a mix of various styles we’ve already explored and it fully admits being inspired by Evanescence, but also by various other artists such as Dolly Parton and Stevie Nicks. It's intended to be Halsey’s mature album. If your idea of making a more mature album is to write lyrics that could be described as dark and personal, and to try to sound like older, more respected artists… you could do better, but you could also do a lot worse.
Why all these imitations? Because of Halsey’s many health problems made her feel as if she was going to die, and made her feel distant from her own body, which made it easier for her to pretend to be other artists, from various generations. The idea was not just to pay tribute to her inspirations, but also to imagine what Halsey’s music would sound like if it had been released in different decades. At least, that’s what I got from reading the album’s Wikipedia article. It’s an ambitious project, but I’m not sure it works every time, or that it really accomplishes what it was going for.
Let’s look at the album opener, the Marylin Monroe-inspired track “Only Living Girl in LA”. It’s a nice, melancholic acoustic guitar ballad with occasional dark and atmospheric synths, and Halsey’s trademark sad singing, and it doesn’t sound at all like a 50s song, let alone like Marylin, which is kind of a wasted. opportunity. It has very direct lyrics about Halsey’s anguish and fear of dying, with lines like “I’ll probably die and they’ll say I was too soft for this world”, while the title seems to refer to her struggles with the entertainment industry. You could draw a lot of parallels with that and Marylin’s last living years, but it mostly sounds like a Halsey song, about Halsey’s life.
It’s a nice Halsey song, which is why I don’t really mind it. Similarly, how is “I Never Loved You” like Kate Bush, because of the dark, strange synths and the piano at the end? Not really, but it’s another very emotional song with the kind of melody that might make you cry immediately. That melody is unfortunately too similar to many of the other ballads on the album. “Lucky”, the Britney Spears-inspired song, is pretty catchy, with the same guitars as many other tracks, and it pretty much steals the chorus of the Britney song with the same title, just changing pronouns: “I’m so lucky, I’m a star”. Otherwise, it’s about Halsey’s own struggles, told in her trademark voice and sensitivity.
“Ego” is supposed to be influenced by The Cranberries, but it doesn’t sound like it, except from the little vocalizations on the intro. But there’s a nice ballad-to-rock instrumentation, except the lyrics and vocals are very much Halsey, because she doesn’t sound like Dolores O’Riordan at all. Similarly, she doesn’t at all sound like Stevie Nicks on “Panic Attack”, but the nice guitar melody sounds a little like Fleetwood Mac’s softer songs, especially “Rhiannon”. But the “Is it love or a panic attack?” chorus feels like a line that only Halsey could write.
Basically, some songs aren’t exactly convincing as imitations, but they are alright as songs. “I Believe in Magic” is too generic to really sound like Linda Rondstadt, but it’s a very touching song about her fear of leaving her son motherless. I don’t really hear how “Letter to God (1974)” sounds like Cher, but I like the bluesy piano and the retro recording quality on Halsey’s sort of speak-singing cadence, as she prays God to heal her. “Hometown” is like Dolly Parton because it’s a country song sung in a high-pitched voice, I guess, but it sounds very nice and wistful as Halsey remembers the sadness and hopes of the people she grew up with.
Some other imitations are more convincing, because they do sound like the artist that inspired them, while still sounding very much like Halsey. “The End” pretty much copies Joni Mitchell’s guitar melodies and intonation, but it’s still clearly Halsey’s voice and lyrics about how “I’ve had a ***ed-up childhood, there’s poison in my brain and in my blood”. The backing vocals on the bridge are a really nice touch.
“Letter to God (1983)” is inspired by Bruce Springsteen, and you can hear it from the mix of bluesy melodies and dark 80s synths, while audience members cheer in the background. “Dog Years” does sound like PJ Harvey, with Halsey’s lower, darker vocals, with some background screams on the bridge, and the equally darker soft-to-heavy guitar riffs. But you can still recognize Halsey’s voice and lyrics, reflecting on her dog’s death and her own, which may come any day. “Hurt Feelings” is supposed to sound like her debut album “Badlands”, and it does, with her clearer voice and the weird, minimalist synth-based instrumentation. Then it’s unfortunate that the last “Letter to God” is inspired by Aaliyah, but doesn’t really sound like it except for some of the background effects.
Now, the part you’ve been expecting. “Life of the Spider (Draft)” is meant to resemble a Tori Amos song, but with its piano and sad singing, as if she was about to cry, it could also be compared to Tori’s most famous imitator, Amy Lee. “Arsonist” is a great imitation of Fiona Apple, with its dark piano and beat and whispered vocals. It’s almost a note-for-note copy of “Criminal”, but even darker, almost similar to Evanescence’s weirder songs. The title track is inspired by Björk, who influenced Evanescence, so of course the synths and strings instrumentation feel similar to both. Halsey’s little gasps sound a lot like Björk, while she uses her typical singing style on the rest of the song. “Darwinism” is inspired by David Bowie, and Halsey’s cadence does feel similar, but the gloomy piano and airy backing vocals, as well as the melancholy, do feel somewhat close to Fallenmania.
Right after this song comes the actual Evanescence-inspired song, “Lonely is the Muse”. There are no Going Under riffs, instead a heavier version of the soft, then angrier guitars used on other songs, but there are the deep, almost whisper vocals that suddenly turn higher and more powerful. There are the heavy guitars creating a dark background, some ethereal backing vocals, some angsty whispers and even some screaming. It’s Halsey’s first song explicitly inspired by Evanescence, but it interestingly manages to sound somewhat different, far more creative than a lot of the fallenmaniacs I’ve reviewed before. However, Amy Lee’s influence is all over the album, it’s in Halsey’s powerful and sad singing, in her personal lyrics and dark instrumentations, in any genre Halsey tries, in all her albums, and probably in all the music she’s ever going to make if there’s going to be more of it.
This album is a special one in Halsey’s discography. As an album inspired by difficult personal experiences, it’s pretty well-made. The pain expressed on the songs feels genuine, Halsey’s vocal performance is pretty good, the melodies are nice. It’s the impersonator part I have doubts about. Some songs don’t work because they don’t sound like their alleged inspiration. The more cynical part of me thinks that she’s just claiming inspiration from more established artists to gain respect from critics. Halsey has always been one of those artists with a devoted fanbase, but a more mixed critical reception, and you could easily accuse this album of baiting those critics. Like she’s saying: “You didn’t like me when I sounded like myself, so now I’m pretending to erase my own personality to sound like the old artists you love and consider beyond criticism”. And yet, the good parts of the album work because they sound like Halsey doing an Evanescence or PJ Harvey song in her very own way, rather than like an impersonal, faceless singer doing an impression of those artists. I realize now that Halsey has too much of a distinctive style for that, and while I’m not necessarily her biggest fan, I respect that about her. I don’t know what the future holds for her, but in a way, I’m glad she made that album. Now that I got that out of the way, it’s time to find other interesting albums, fallenmaniac or not.
