Chappell Roan - The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess

Hey, Bottle.

C'mon, man. I'm tired. Don't make me have to think.

I haven't even said anything yet.

But you're going to. You're gonna make me listen to some off the wall album, and I'm going to enjoy it, but it's gonna be weird and awkward and require a ton of reading and fine, screw it, what insane thing are we listening to tonight? 

2024 is the year of Sleep Token and Chappell Roan. Nothing against Sleep Token, but they lead down the hallway with Starset and Twenty One Pilots and all those LARP bands and I don't have the brain power to tackle the Massively Multimedia Online Role Playing Genre. Female Drag Queen (or should I say Princess?) is about all I can handle. Chappell Roan's debut album is already a year old (released in September 2023), but she's been releasing trash-pop singles for like 8 years now. She's not new, she just finally found her audience opening for Olivia Rodrigo, and Island said 'well if you're gonna generate revenue, we might as well capitalize on it."

With a name like The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess, it's either a great album or it's not. As mentioned, she's not new, so a self-titled debut is completely out of the equation. Any actual reference to the Brecht/Weill opera allusion of the title is a coin flip at best, but there better be a rise, and it better proceed to a fall.

Femininomenon is definitely an opener. On one hand, "online love" is unfulfilling for everyone, on the other hand your 80s synth pop needs a dance beat. Not sure why we're name-dropping Papa John, but I do completely understand the girls just wanna have fun aesthetic.

Red Wine Supernova is just your sing along lesbian vampire thing.

After Midnight is when people party.

Coffee. That's it. I definitely shouldn't go to a bar with my ex and then go back to their apartment. So of course I did not in anyway enforce those boundaries.

Casual. Saying "I love you" is not the transition from casual to serious; that already happened. 

Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl is what you get when Chappell Roan tries to write a song titled that. 

Hot To Go. I'm sure I don't know what that might mean, what with my "we don't talk about things like that" Midwestern prudishness.

I don't need to keep going, these are just paraphrases of her own descriptions of each track, and you can just go read it yourself. The point is that this is the overt story of being bisexual over historically closeted 80s synth pop, 90s club, and very nearly Country in the case of Picture You.

Drag Culture is generally associated with gay men, but Drag itself is a theatrical performance that caricatures overt feminity. Interestingly, Ru Paul, probably the most famous mainstream Drag Queen, described Drag as allowing him to express his personal masculinity. The point is that it's a safe space for communicating through explicit exaggeration. We the audience know that hyperbole is happening, but we also know how difficult it was for mainstream artists to openly acknowledge their sexuality for decades. Chappell Roan isn't immune, no label actually wanted to publish it, this album is only on Target shelves because Island realized they couldn't afford not to license the rights to publish it. 

So, musically this is spectacular. She can sing, the songs are a joy to listen to (for dance pop). What about the album concept?

Well, yeah. The songs literally start from "coming out," meander through all the various complicated twists and turns of real-life relationships, and end up depressed and rejected and wishing your dad would come pick you up and take you back home to your childhood. There are no more songs on this pop-star edition, only 3 sides, and it suffers exactly the same no track list and no side indication problems as Childish Gambino's Because The Internet. It was never meant for vinyl, so it totally doesn't fit properly on vinyl. Sounds good, though. All the thumbs up for the album, one half-hearted middle finger for the format foibles.

PS. The character of The City of Mahogany will be played by California for this performance.