Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess - Chappell Roan

I’ve noticed some recurring themes in my exploration of the top of the 2024 charts. Chappell Roan hits them all:

Theme 1: “I’ve been good, now it’s time to be bad”

Theme 2: “We broke up and now your life sucks”

Theme 3: “I’m hot, let’s dance”

Theme 4: Always pronouncing the letter O at the end of a word like it has an umlaut (why does everyone say “uhh” while making an “O” shape with their mouth? What is this new Gen Z accent?)

This album is the result of a long, hard slog for Chappell Roan to make it to the top. Even though she was essentially discovered via Youtube, she’s the definition of a working musician, and it’s pretty cool to see someone have this level of success after so long in the trenches - it seems she’s rejecting the attention as much as she possibly can, which makes me think she’s even more authentic in her blue collar musical roots.

There’s real creative energy here. Sometimes artists can yield to inertia when trying to fill out an album - but this album feels like it was edited down from a larger pool of songs rather than expanded to fill the space. The variety is pleasant, and so is the performance, although the vocal “flicks” and yodels were a little heavy-handed at times. 90% of the time the yodel comes across like a little exasperated sigh at the end of each note - like she’s pissed about something but also exhausted about it.

The Midwest makes zero appearances, to my knowledge, but it seems the story here is about her leaving the whitebread land of her upbringing and seeing the wide world for the first time, her personality and awareness expanding into the larger universe she now occupies. The message I take away from this quest is shallow at first glance - shit sucks, so let’s dance - but who ever said Gen Z doesn’t deserve a little escapism to deal with the crazy-ass world we’ve handed them?

Jams

• “After Midnight”

• “Pink Pony Club”

From the roundup Jamwise #45 - Special Edition: 2024's Chart-Topping Albums.