The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is an album about manipulation but I can't quite decide who is manipulating who. Chappel Roan is clearly a talented singer - check out her tiny desk concert if you want evidence of that but it's the bits in-between the songs that make me uncomfortable. Wearing hyper feminity as a mask but undercutting that by clowning it up and leaving lipstick on her teeth annoys the hell out of me.
Clearly Roan has been done dirty by a guy or two. Whether it's the one guy or multiple is unclear but instead of going to therapy she wrote some bangers about being treated badly. In this respect she is Taylor Swifts edgier younger sister. She's also deep in her lesbian era in a way that at least feels more authentic than Katy Perry but no less cliched - the only lesbian fantasy left unexplored in Naked in Manhatten is a pillow fight but in it's defence I think it knows it.
In After Midnight, I think unwittingly, she describes herself as a Cinderella-esque predator waiting for the midnight witching hour to pounce on someone's girlfriend and then her boyfriend? Or someone elses boyfriend? Is she coming out to punish the guy she's still getting off on in My Kink is Karma? In Hot To Go she talks about making music to make someone dance with her. Just who is manipulating who right now and to what ends? Irregardless the guy she's scorning in MKIK definitely believes he's in with a chance of a threesome
Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl ironically sounds like it could have come out at any time over the last 40 years. She revels in being sexualised which is a bit jarring after Casual where she complains that the dude she's being intimate with isn't treating her right. Sex is obviously a recurring theme to which I will return later but she flits between wanting commitment from a man and being a bit less committed with the ladies other than planning that trip to Manhatten. In Casual she isn't happy about having sex in the bathroom but she does applaud this in Pink Pony Club maybe because it's a dude doing it and it annoys his mum. Annoying your mum is bit of a undercurrent.
Ultimately the rebelliousness of this album reminded me a little of the Struts offering we reviewed a few weeks ago. It seems to be progressive and edgy but in Guilty Pleasure she describes a little bit of light BDSM and calls herself a bad girl because she's attracted to someone who smokes weed and watches movies. I guess in one sense young people like to think they've invented everything like sex in cars. I guess we all have collective Back the the Future amnesia.
let me address the thing that is really annoying me though. Chappel Roan is a character being played by Kayleigh Rose Amstutz. Both names are listed on the credits and it's being likened to a David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust situation. Amstutz has talked about how appearing as Roan gives her the confidence to perform - this mask is being seen as a positive. If she instead said that the only way she can get the confidence to perform is by downing two bottles of vodka she might well be operating in the fine traditions of rock and roll but she wouldn't be clapped for it. I personally want to wipe all that make up off, hug her and let her know she is good enough. It's weird that people talk about only finding acceptance when they wear a mask. We should stop celebrating it and fix the nonsense that leads to this stuff.
Ultimately she writes about being manipulated by men and can now only find the confidence to perform as a woman by cosplaying as a man cosplaying as a women. Her hyper feminine expression seems to be ignorant of her own femininity as she filters herself through the feminine expression of men expressing stereotypical and misogynistic ideas of femininity. My God it annoys me so much that it's still men defining how women experience their own womeness but we call it progressive.
When thinking about the explicit lyrics and Prince etc which Foggy mentioned in his review here is my problem. I'm 20 years older than Chappel Roan. When Prince talks about his sexiness I'm not bothered because I'm not sexually attracted to him. When Roan does it's different because I am attracted to (but not attractive to) the ladies and it's a problem primarily because of the age difference. I feel like a voyeuristic creep. So in the end am I being manipulated by her showing a lot of herself OR is she manipulated into showing it for my titillation?
The final thing I'm wondering is if this hits different in the States because they don't have Eurovision. This kind of campy pop stuff feels familiar and there is a long standing relationship with the LGBTQ community and pop music.
Anyway it's a good listen and I'm in a caravan in Cleethorpes so able to race through it quite quickly for the required three listens. Reading back my review is a bit more scathing than how I feel about it. There are some good pop tunes here particularly if you compare it to something like Dear Future Husband by Meghan Trainor. The production stays on the right side of dance pop stuff so gives some weight to the ballady stuff and some nice sounds in the upbeat numbers.
I'm unlikely to listen to this lots because of how creepy it makes me feel and the aesthetic Chappel Roan stuff annoys me but I think it's very very very decent 8/10.
As usual, an absolutely outstanding bit of work. I am grateful as I know we all are for your terrific insights.
As I learn more about her I am increasingly convinced her career is all quite Horatio Alger-like in that music and “making it” isn’t a function of ego-fulfillment or artistic expression but a way out of a stifling religious upbringing in a lower-class setting. As such, she does what she needs to to survive and thrive. No surprise her meteoric rise is already causing her attention problems from rabid fans which she does not welcome at all. She’s already said she’s only going to be “doing this job for a while.” She regularly has referred to her career as a job in fact. That makes me think that the artist in her — which is clearly there — may somehow emerge, and her “character” of Chappel Roan will retire. And I bet her musical style changes a lot — I can see her embracing country, or quieter pop where her vocals are shinier. And her latest single is already a nod in that direction (the aforementioned “Good Luck, Babe”).
Unlike you I am not attracted to her and I don’t feel creeped out — I’m not quite 30+ years older than she so I look on her almost like she was my kid. And as the father of an LGTBQ child, her free-to-be-me message — ironic as it is as an act — is what I really took to heart, plus the beats, her voice and her clever turns of phrase. I feel confident in this because my wife likes her too, and she and I raised our kid together, so I think we find her direct expression inspiring rather than being worried we’re leering at her (my wife, not being a lesbian that I know of, particularly).
But then do we worry about her perhaps exploiting a subculture or feelings of sexual identity anxiety the way Thom Yorke exploits the darkness inherent in all people? No, because CR actually is bisexual and because her message is more one of celebration, hope and joy, not despair, hopelessness and depression. Even her revenge fantasy (“My Kink Is Karma”) is just that. There’s a difference between faking orgasm and faking your own suicide.
Anyhow, I’m glad you got something out of this and if I’m right, my guess she’s going to break a lot of fans’ hearts while at the same time winning new ones. So for now I’m going to enjoy the rush of her bursting on the scene the way she has in all its cosplay glory.
