ok… so first it gives off last christmas by Wham vibes, seems alright. Nice bouncy little synths. but then the chorus hits the arrangement develops and she goes into the stratosphere Kate Bush style with an incredible hook and fantastic synth pop arrangement, great development in the 2nd verse, and damn what a breathtaking bridge. Stunning vocals, glistening production, This is it!! My god I love this song.

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What the hell you guys? Where did this woman come from? Recently people at work who know I like music recently started asking me “have you heard of Chappell Roan?” and I’d started to see the name popping up in thumbnails and media headlines here and there. I figure alright I’ll give this a shot and see what the deal is.
So with almost no context I put on her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and uh… I was not expecting it to actually be good, but it is friggin great. I must have listened to it like 20 times this week. Can’t remember the last time a new artist clicked with me so quickly. It might be me favourite pop album this decade so far. I know I’ve been on that Taylor swift bullshit recently, but this wipes the floor with Taylor’s stuff. Production and arrangments are fantastic (songs with multiple bridges, goofy beat switch ups, lush strings, and loads of fun little details to pick up on with headphones), propulsive fun energetic, every song has a different vibe to it, Chappell writes terrific pop melodies, and some of the most amusing (and gayest!) lyrics I’ve ever heard on a pop album in a long time, even the ballads are really good (and genuinely emotionally compelling!). I laughed I cried, Chappell Roan = new favorite lesbian. 9/10

What really sealed the deal deal for me is her voice. I can’t get enough of it. She naturally has a lower kind of husky stevie nicks-type of voice but she seems willing to stretch her voice in all sorts of ways. Going all over her range, into falsetto, yodeling, and all sorts of dramatic dynamics. Chappell’s voice has this weird breathy-throaty voice crack thing she does all over the place that reminds me maybe a little bit of Dolores O’Riordan (what other singers do this im not sure?), but in a totally different context. But then on “good luck babe” she’s doing this almost Kate Bush-like approach. So I dont even know where she’s going to take her singing next. But her voice is full of personality and thats the kind of thing you cant use editing and autotune to smooth over which is a breath of fresh air from most pop artists these days.

She also seems to be rapidly developing “Chappell Roan” from just a stage name into some sort of Ziggy Stardust-like alter ego, which is super cool and something that pop music has really been lacking lately. She’s been super entertaining when playing up this character so far in the interview clips i’ve seen. It’s been a long time since someone this fun and eccentric has been in the mainstream. cant wait to see what she does next.

Anyway, the middle-aged straight guys who populate music babble are precisely the demographic this album isnt aimed at, so perhaps you guys wont be into it but idk. Check the album out and tell me.