Chappell Roan is currently one of the most popular pop artists with 44k monthly listeners on spotify alone.
Chappell Roan released her first song Good Hurt in 2017 then released her Ep School Nights in 2018. These songs were good, but I think she really found her voice by 2020 when Love Me Anyway and California came out. On September 22, 2023 she put out her first album A Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess which nine out of fourteen songs on the album were released independently in previous years.
The opening track on the album, Femininomenon, starts off slow before switching to a more techno-y beat. It talks about how men don’t take responsibility seriously. The bridge is in the style of a call and response which makes the live performance of this song even more fun for the crowd. The word Femininomenon was made by Chappell is a mix between the words feminine and phenomenon because it was “a phenomenon if sleeping with a man was better than sleeping with a girl”.
The most popular songs on the album are Hot to Go, Red Wine Supernova, and Pink Pony Club. The songs have over 1 billion listens combined. I’m sure most if not all people have heard at least a snippet of Hot to Go after the song and dance blew up on tik tok after she opened for Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts tour. I like these songs, but I do prefer some of her other songs more.
One of my favorite songs on the album is Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl. This song deserves to be in her top hits in my opinion. I like how she starts the song by telling a story then immediately going into the pre chorus. I also love the comparison between hyper mega bummer boys and super graphic ultra girls. Then the music video is really fun as Chappell runs around the city dressed as an alien.
All of the slower songs are incredibly underrated, especially Kaleidoscope. This song is so beautifully written and sung. It’s about Chappell wanting to hate and trust her ex but she keeps falling back into the bad habit of going back to them.
“And even upside down, it’s beautiful somehow. It’s never just a shape alone, love is a kaleidoscope.’ The entire chorus deserves a grammy in my opinion, but this quote stuck to me for some reason.
Even though this song technically isn’t part of the album I still think it needs to be talked about. Good Luck Babe is about a lesbian forcing herself to be straight to fit into society norms. This song is probably Chappell’s biggest hit after debuting number 77 on Billboard’s hot 100. I absolutely love this song. The bridge is my favorite part because it really gets the message across.
I love all of the songs on the album, and I can’t wait for her to release her second album that has already hooked me with the first two songs Chappell has performed.
FINAL RATING: 9.5
I go by the Tyson Meter which goes on a 0-10 scale, 0-4 being nearly or completely unlistenable, 5-7 in the “maybe listen to this” or “this is kind of good” range, and 8-10 being genuinely good I recommend this
