In October 2024, the internet’s most infamous music pundit — Anthony Fantano — released a review of Halsey’s The Great Impersonator. To say the review was scathing would be to sell it short. On Fantano’s reliable 1-10 scale, he gave Halsey’s latest effort a ‘Strong 1,’ accusing it of a permeably strong case of “main character syndrome” and weak interpolations of artists and records he believed to be her references. This review at the time pulled not a peep from Halsey, though she is an artist known to clap back at criticism (such as when she ironically, and regrettably, suggested that the “basement that they run Pitchfork out of…collapse,” not knowing that Pitchfork operates out of the World Trade Centre). However, two years later, Fantano has unearthed the bones of his commentary and Halsey is making her thoughts clear. In the opinion of Fantano, his review generated more buzz on her behalf than the album itself did. In Halsey’s opinion, Fantano is a “raised-by-4chan edgelord bully” who gets off on calling her most personal album “whiny” and picking apart artists for sport.
This feud is not Fantano’s first controversy of such a nature — it’s quite the opposite. He regularly gets called out by fans of women in music — paticularly in pop — for not taking the source material seriously or not intrinsically understanding it. A notable example of this can be seen in his review of Fiona Apple’s Fetch The Bolt Cutters, wherein he calls ‘For Her’ — a track including lines like “you raped me in the same bed your daughter was born in” — gimmicky and disjointed. The same fundamental lack of comprehension can be seen in Fantano’s approach to The Great Impersonator, an album composed by Halsey whilst she was undergoing chemotherapy. Whilst he spends much of the review criticising Halsey’s half-baked musical references, he fails to understand that the ‘impersonations’ she performed preceding the album’s release were marketing tools. The album is called The Great Impersonator, and she, to generate buzz, impersonated the likes of PJ Harvey, Bjork, and Evanescence. To expect her to successfully draw upon the influences of 15+ classic musicians whilst maintaining her own flair on a very personal record is an insanely unrealistic bar to draw; it, quite frankly, sets her up where she does not ask to be.
Music criticism is, and always will be, an important an essential tool for artists. When a musician releases a body of work into the world, they seek feedback. Even if a review is highly critical, it should rarely be written off, as useful notes can be found in even the most unsuspecting of places. However, what music criticism should not be, is personal. As music journalists, we have the dominant duty to critique the music itself, not the artist behind it. Fantano’s review of The Great Impersonator betrays one thing; his deep dislike for Halsey. Not Halsey the artist, but Halsey the person. He is clearly a lover of a great variety of music, but his genuine passion and skill for what he does is often undercut by his — perhaps unconscious — vendettas against artists he does not like or find legitimate. You cannot go into a review or a first listen jaded by bias. It will not serve you, or the artist. As for Halsey, she can do better than taking all of this petty nonsense seriously. Besides, the best art can stem from the worst critique.
“Halsey” by DeShaun Craddock is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.