Rating: 3.5/5
Chappell Roan (“Love Me Anyway”) has dressed as a cowgirl, a cabaret dancer, a waitress and a cowgirl in the long promotional era for her latest debut album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.”
Roan’s style of glammy campy electro-pop borrows from the performance antics of Lady Gaga (“Chromatica”), the cheeky irony of Katy Perry (“Teenage Dream”) and the artsy experiments of Charli XCX (“CRASH”). Three times on the opener “Femininomenon,” Roan pesters an inaudible DJ to “play a song with a f***ing beat.” The disco-esque “After Midnight” shows Roan admitting to wanting to kiss both your boyfriend and girlfriend before a bar fight. Simply perusing the tracklist reveals the glitter pen humor Roan employs all over the album; whatever a “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” is, Roan surely fits the definition.
Roan reached somewhat mainstream recognition as an opener on Olivia Rodrigo’s (“get him back!”) Sour Tour. They share the producer Dan Nigro, who has had quite the year with Rodrigo’s hit album “GUTS” and the return of Caroline Polachek (“Desire…”). While Roan’s club bangers drown out Rodrigo’s solemn power ballads, tracks like “Casual” and “Coffee” simmer down the album’s caffeine-induced energy. While they balance the album, their jarring lyrics stand out awkwardly against Nigro’s grandiose sincere production.
Roan finds a sweet spot of campiness and cleverness on songs like “HOT TO GO!” The track time warps back to the new wave ‘80s. Roan spells out the title in the chorus like a Madonna (“Holiday”) dressed as a cheerleader dressed as Madonna. On “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” Roan hollers bodaciously about “telling secrets/There on the mattress/Wearing nothing but glitter and lashes.” Roan has said she tried to get the song on the “Barbie” album, which unfortunately failed and did the soundtrack a disservice. Nigro’s layered house beat, as in House Xtravaganza, and Roan’s explosive vocals sound much more intensely Barbie than anything the soundtrack itself offered.
“Pink Pony Club” is the oldest song off the album, dating back to three years ago, but it still holds up as the overarching thesis of the album. Inspired by a trip to a gay bar, Roan tells the story of a girl who leaves her Tennessee roots to become an exotic dancer in West Hollywood. Roan feigns the voice of an operatic lounge singer in the verses.
“Midwest Princess” runs like the lip-synced soundtrack to the drag queen you watch in the neon-lit gay bar while you overshare your trauma to a complete stranger. Roan does not just define camp in her music; she herself is camp personified. The album release coincided with that of colleagues Slayyyter (“STARF***ER”), Kim Petras (“Problematique”) and Kylie Minogue (“Tension”), though Roan exhibits a nostalgic and relatable brand of camp that gives more than another pop release.
Image from Chappelle Roan via Spotify
