The Album Review Club - Week #138 - (page 1790) - 1956 - Soul-Junk

The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess - Chappell Roan

Yeah, I struggled a bit with this one, and mainly in not being part of the target audience, mostly for the music. I know some of you struggle with country artists, but I believe I do with today's (bubblegum) pop music.

I don't particularly enjoy or listen to it, and because of that, I mostly don't even have a reference point of "who this sounds like", as it all mostly sounds the same to me.

Most of the songs here written in that theme/genre just didn't hit for me, and that's probably on me for not appreciating it. Those would include "Femininomenon", "Red Wine Supernova", "After Midnight", "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl", "HOT TO GO!", "Naked In Manhattan", and "Guilty Pleasure".

"Pink Pony Club" lyrically reminded me of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", though I think that was one song that worked for me more than others, probably due to the guitars and synths at the end. "My Kink Is Karma" had the cool vocals during the raised octave "You" parts, and for some reason I thought that song worked better than some of the others.

The two songs that I most enjoyed were the slow ones here. "Coffee" and "Kaleidoscope" were really exceptional songs, mostly about love of someone that doesn't feel the same way, and the mystery of how love works. I did enjoy listening to those that really were delivered well vocally and met the mood in the songs. Those were the two standouts to me. “Picture You” worked to a lesser extent, and landed with me better vocally than lyrically.

The vocals on "California" were a bit more muted, but I suppose that was part of the song itself, and I did like the various build-ups in that song, as it went acapella at the end, which was a nice touch.

I will note I was a bit surprised while watching US Open tennis that her song "HOT TO GO!" was heard on the fade out to commercial on the women's coverage a few times. So obviously she's popular. ESPN was careful to have the correct lyrics selected there through the fade out, but the kids walking through the room would have recognized the artist. Now I do too (1 point for Dad to be in the less negative is always a bonus). ;-)

Overall, on the songs I liked, those were enjoyable listens, and thank goodness they were there for the range and variety. It’s a 6/10 for me with the emphasis on the slow songs.
 
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Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess - Chappell Roan

Yeah, I struggled a bit with this one, and mainly in not being part of the target audience, mostly for the music. I know some of you struggle with country artists, but I believe I do with today's (bubblegum) pop music.

I don't particularly enjoy or listen to it, and because of that, I mostly don't even have a reference point of "who this sounds like", as it all mostly sounds the same to me.

Most of the songs here written in that theme/genre just didn't hit for me, and that's probably on me for not appreciating it. Those would include "Femininomenon", "Red Wine Supernova", "After Midnight", "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl", "HOT TO GO!", "Naked In Manhattan", and "Guilty Pleasure".

"Pink Pony Club" lyrically reminded me of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", though I think that was one song that worked for me more than others, probably due to the guitars and synths at the end. "My Kink Is Karma" had the cool vocals during the raised octave "You" parts, and for some reason I thought that song worked better than some of the others.

The two songs that I most enjoyed were the slow ones here. "Coffee" and "Kaleidoscope" were really exceptional songs, mostly about love of someone that doesn't feel the same way, and the mystery of how love works. I did enjoy listening to those that really were delivered well vocally and met the mood in the songs. Those were the two standouts to me. “Picture You” worked to a lesser extent, and landed with me better vocally than lyrically.

The vocals on "California" were a bit more muted, but I suppose that was part of the song itself, but I did like the various build-ups in that song, until it went acapella at the end, which was a nice touch.

I will note I was a bit surprised while watching US Open tennis that her song "HOT TO GO!" was heard on the fade out to commercial on the women's coverage a few times. So obviously she's popular. ESPN was careful to have the correct lyrics selected there through the fade out, but the kids walking through the room would have recognized the artist. Now I do too (1 point for Dad to be in the less negative is always a bonus). ;-)

Overall, on the songs I liked, those were enjoyable listens, and thank goodness they were there for the range and variety. It’s a 6/10 for me with the emphasis on the slow songs.
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I also think the “You” she hits on “My Kink Is Karma” is one of my favo(u)rite moments on this record, along with “God, what have you done?” on PPC. Just a couple of bits that made this more than a plain ol’ pop record to me.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
I once again must say I am happy that so many found things to enjoy here. I’ve been listening to it a lot both before I wrote up my review and since and I’m finding it isn’t getting old which is a bit amazing. “Could go to hell, but we’ll prob’ly be fine” — ahhh, to be young again!
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As you/she have mentioned hell...the other thing I've enjoyed this week (triggered by comments in your original review) is thinking about the differences between the US and the UK that potentially make this album land quite differently. We don't often have picks that prompt those kinds of avenues of thought around socio-politcal issues and arguably to take the discussions in those directions is to derail the thread. But at a personal level it got me thinking once again, amongst other things, about the significant differences in religiosity between the UK and the US and particularly the level of politicisation of religion which then has a major societal and cultural impact. I even ended up down a little rabbit hole in relation to the Pledge of Allegiance (I didn't know the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s) and the history of legal challenges around it! Somehow my end point for this whole meander was finding out that The Hoff was convinced one of his songs was partly responsible for bringing down the Berlin wall! Maybe not central to the thread purpose but for me personally made the pick that much more enjoyable :-)
 
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threespires said:
As you/she have mentioned hell...the other thing I've enjoyed this week (triggered by comments in your original review) is thinking about the differences between the US and the UK that potentially make this album land quite differently. We don't often have picks that prompt those kinds of avenues of thought around socio-politcal issues and arguably to take the discussions in those directions is to derail the thread. But at a personal level it got me thinking once again, amongst other things, about the significant differences in religiosity between the UK and the US and particularly the level of politicisation of religion which then has a major societal and cultural impact. I even ended up down a little rabbit hole in relation to the Pledge of Allegiance (I didn't know the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s) and the history of legal challenges around it! Somehow my end point for this whole meander was finding out that The Hoff was convinced one of his songs was partly responsible for bringing down the Berlin wall! Maybe not central to the thread purpose but for me personally made the pick that much more enjoyable :-)
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For as long as I can remember pop has always been gay here in the UK. This is why I keep questioning why CR has hit so big. Then I remembered JoJo Siwa recently claimed to have invented Gay pop and it seems like the landscape is different in the US. It might be that she is old now and not relevant to a modern audience but it's like America has forgotten Madonna. she hit many of the same notes that CR has - perhaps without the overt lesbianism but I think the appeal of CR goes beyond that demographic. Vogue came out in 1990 so I guess a 16 year old now probably isn't super aware of that but judging by comments under CR YouTube performances there are plenty of mature people (like Foggy) who feel the liberation who should remember Madonna. More recent examples are Born This Way by Gaga.

In my mind there is nothing new that CR is doing or saying but it does seem to be hitting hard as a "finally someone sees me" kind of album and not just with the kids. I'm finding this fascinating and annoying lots of young people by asking about her. The annoyance is mainly because they don't find her revelatory in the same way - she's just a pop star nothing more.
 
mrbelfry said:
For as long as I can remember pop has always been gay here in the UK. This is why I keep questioning why CR has hit so big. Then I remembered JoJo Siwa recently claimed to have invented Gay pop and it seems like the landscape is different in the US. It might be that she is old now and not relevant to a modern audience but it's like America has forgotten Madonna. she hit many of the same notes that CR has - perhaps without the overt lesbianism but I think the appeal of CR goes beyond that demographic. Vogue came out in 1990 so I guess a 16 year old now probably isn't super aware of that but judging by comments under CR YouTube performances there are plenty of mature people (like Foggy) who feel the liberation who should remember Madonna. More recent examples are Born This Way by Gaga.

In my mind there is nothing new that CR is doing or saying but it does seem to be hitting hard as a "finally someone sees me" kind of album and not just with the kids. I'm finding this fascinating and annoying lots of young people by asking about her. The annoyance is mainly because they don't find her revelatory in the same way - she's just a pop star nothing more.
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Yes very much where my eldest is with her (the youngest had never heard of her and as she doesn't have an EA25 rating currently has no interest in finding out). Perhaps the difference with Madonna was she was seen as something of a magpie appropriating many styles rather than being personally invested? Similarly Gaga is more of an ally rather than having the same experiences?? It might of course simply be social media amplification which didn't exist back in Madonna's day? Either way, it's 40 years since Jimmy Somerville sang "the love that you need will never be found at home" on a song from an album with an overtly political title. Substitute London for Los Angeles and it's the same message 4 decades earlier which might explain the lesser impact here? I do think lyrically she ups the ante a bit, sometimes missing the mark but other times to good effect.
 
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Aiming to tally up the scores around 2ish, for any last minute swoopers. Hammer, I'm sure fog will want to hear your thoughts even if you miss out today.
 
mrbelfry said:
For as long as I can remember pop has always been gay here in the UK. This is why I keep questioning why CR has hit so big. Then I remembered JoJo Siwa recently claimed to have invented Gay pop and it seems like the landscape is different in the US. It might be that she is old now and not relevant to a modern audience but it's like America has forgotten Madonna. she hit many of the same notes that CR has - perhaps without the overt lesbianism but I think the appeal of CR goes beyond that demographic. Vogue came out in 1990 so I guess a 16 year old now probably isn't super aware of that but judging by comments under CR YouTube performances there are plenty of mature people (like Foggy) who feel the liberation who should remember Madonna. More recent examples are Born This Way by Gaga.

In my mind there is nothing new that CR is doing or saying but it does seem to be hitting hard as a "finally someone sees me" kind of album and not just with the kids. I'm finding this fascinating and annoying lots of young people by asking about her. The annoyance is mainly because they don't find her revelatory in the same way - she's just a pop star nothing more.
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I will note — the difference is that there isn’t anything New York or Hollywood about CR, unlike Madonna and Gaga. The liberation isn’t sexual as much as it is geographic — from the poor, white, deeply religious Midwest/South.
 
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