Throughout art and music history, visionaries have had some sort of muse that inspired their work, and inspired them to comb through the depths of their feelings to create that work. But how often has the spotlight actually been on the muses themselves and the lives they’ve lived? That’s a key question that Halsey explores throughout her fan-favorite track ‘Lonely Is The Muse,’ and we’re ready to take you through the beauty of her answers and the further questions they pose.
This article is adapted from our full breakdown of Halsey’s The Great Impersonator album – you can read the full piece right here for more analysis!
‘Lonely is the Muse’ is a crucial part of the story of The Great Impersonator, addressing Halsey’s relationship with fame and herself. We think this is one of the few songs on the album that specifically feature Halsey The Musician as a narrator, almost like she’s speaking to Ashley. “Where do I go in the process when I’m just an apparatus?” they ask while Ashley finds a deeper connection with her true self as she fights her illness. While her focus is on her personal life, what happens to their popstar persona? Does it fade away, or is it still with them? Was it ever really separate from them?
Beyond self-reflection, ‘Lonely is the Muse’ touches on Halsey’s image in the public eye and how people discredit her work by focusing on gossip. “I’ve inspired platinum records, I’ve earned platinum airline status. And I mined a couple diamonds from the stories in my head, but I’m reduced to just a body here in someone else’s bed,” she laments. Diamond records (“a couple diamonds” references their two diamond singles, ‘Closer’ and ‘Without Me’) are ranked higher than platinum ones, so even as she outshines her exes and the music they took inspiration from her for, there’s still so much discussion that reduces her to just their past partner.
“I spent years becoming cool,” she muses as a callback to the “I wanna be cool” line from ‘Ego,’ reflecting on how hard she’s worked over the years to make her art relatable and interesting. They go into deeper commentary about how much they’ve given over the years on the song’s chorus, insisting, “I always knew I was a martyr and that Jesus was one, too.” It’s a callback to the confidently nonchalant “I am not a martyr, I’m a problem” lyric from ‘I am not a woman, I’m a god’ that exposes what they’ve given up to be one of our favorite artists: privacy, mental health, and even their physical well-being. She knew this all along but chose to keep pouring her heart into the work and community she loves.
Interestingly, Halsey actually rejected the idea of being a martyr in her 2016 Rolling Stone profile. They shared, “I’m not just some f*cking martyr who’s trying to make all of these lost, misfit kids feel better. I need them to help me feel normal, too.” Just short of a decade later, it seems that she’s reevaluated her relationship with fame and the spotlight and realized she deserved much better treatment from the public.
Halsey leans further into the impersonation theme of The Great Impersonator on the chorus as well. She sings, “I was built from special pieces that I learned how to unscrew. And I can always reassemble to fit perfectly for you, or anybody that decides that I’m of use.” Think a grungier version of Taylor Swift’s ‘mirrorball,’ breaking down how Halsey can impersonate different types of energy to appeal to anyone, whether it’s fans or someone in her personal life. And do you hear the similarities between the “ha-ah” ad lib on the chorus and the “ah-ah” ad lib from ‘People disappear here?’ We think it’s very intentional to point out the fame motif that pops up on both songs.
Speaking of fame, the original poem Ashley wrote that inspired ‘Lonely is the Muse’ ponders how fame has made her feel like a shell of herself, trapped inside the Halsey character. “A grotesque and fading memory trapped underneath a pen,” they write. “I’m still trapped inside that mirror, where I painted my eyes gold, among the last remaining pride my adolescence used to hold. But I will always be a martyr. I will fill your life with sounds.”
The corresponding rollout impersonation for ‘Lonely is the Muse,’ Amy Lee of Evanescence on the band’s debut album cover, is also really fascinating to us. Amy famously had a very different vision for the band’s hit ‘Bring Me To Life,’ which she wrote about trying to find herself again after a numbing, abusive relationship. Her label pushed her to add the male vocals to the song against her wishes and Rolling Stone even called the track “a case of mistaken identity” in a review that compared it to Linkin Park’s signature rock-rap fusion. Amy eventually recorded a new version of the song for Evanescence’s Synthesis album in 2017, seemingly closer to her original vision and how she interpreted it during the band’s performances.
There are quite a few similarities between the story of ‘Bring Me To Life’ and the stories Halsey tells on The Great Impersonator. She described a similarly paralyzing, unhealthy relationship on songs like ‘Arsonist’ and ‘Life of the Spider (Draft).’ Halsey has faced various pressures in the music industry that have created a further divide between Ashley and Halsey, which brings us back to the idea of “mistaken identity” that came up with ‘Bring Me To Life’ – and even some reviews of The Great Impersonator that assumed Halsey was trying to impersonate various artists rather than telling their own, deeply personal story. And finally, The Great Impersonator feels like a homecoming to Ashley as Halsey and to a life full of gratitude and love that she can properly enjoy.
Do you agree with our interpretation of ‘Lonely Is The Muse?’ Let us know in the comments below or hit us up on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! You can also buzz on over to our Reddit community to chat with us, and check out our full breakdown of The Great Impersonator for more analysis.
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