In 2020, Chappell Roan was dropped from Atlantic Records after the Missouri-born singer-songwriter’s single “Pink Pony Club” failed to chart. Four years later, she has been hailed as a queer pop icon, incorporating themes of candid sexuality in her drag queen persona in a manner as daring as Lady Gaga fifteen years before her.
Chappell Roan’s 2023 debut is at the center of this momentum, but “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” did not immediately take off. The album amed after a David Bowie album of a similar name “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.” The sleeper hit would only peak after several months of touring, with Chappell Roan opening for Olivia Rodrigo and performing in festivals like Coachella.
The queer themes of the record have been essential to the explosion in popularity, with the songwriting exploring sexuality and gender expression in a more direct and personal way than any popular artist before her. In fact, many of the more explicit tracks like “Red Wine Supernova” and “Casual” are the biggest hits.
Elements of ballroom culture pop up in “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” reminiscent especially in its bridge of Madonna’s “Vogue.”
Chappell Roan is not afraid to wear her influences on her sleeve, making “Midwest Princess’s” highs often feel like tributes and spotlights to the icons that inspired her. This includes the infectious “Hot to Go!” which takes clear influence from the vocal styles of Gwen Stefani and Charli XCX.
The ode to schadenfreude “My Kink is Karma” is certainly indebted to Taylor Swift’s “Cruel Summer,” but Chappell Roan’s little garnishes in the chromatic changes and the industrial synth put it above the still superb “Lover” cut.
Elsewhere, the bicurious celebrations “Femininomenon” and “Naked in Manhattan” sneak in touches of electroclash and new rave. The clever twists on melodies and progressions continue all the way to the closer “Guilty Pleasure,” with Chappell Roan adopting a style of singing not unlike fellow queer icon Mitski while sneaking in some inspired key changes.
Truly, the only track that does not rise to the occasion enough to overcome the brazen influence would be “After Midnight,” an innocuous if unnecessary disco throwback that clearly borrows the bassline to “Attention” by Charlie Puth and a few ideas from Dua Lipa’s playbook.
“Midwest Princess" is absolutely a flawed album, especially in a particularly slow stretch after “My Kink is Karma.” However, all is forgiven with that original single, “Pink Pony Club,” a highly cathartic dance-pop ballad about escaping your small town and embracing your identity.
These are not necessarily new themes in pop music, but Chappell Roan provides such an overtly queer tone to her songwriting that it resonates far more.
“The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” proves to be a particularly exciting debut. Roan has immediately established a reliable strength as a songwriter that has persisted with her newest single “Good Luck, Babe!” while tackling compulsory heterosexuality under a sophisti-pop sky.
Even if one is not queer, the themes she presents in these fourteen tracks are so universal and intensely relatable. Chappell Roan holds so much charisma and personality in the music and her performance that it proves hard to deny her status as the Midwest Princess.
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