I’m Gonna Keep on Dancing to The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
Graphic by Julia Norkus
By Karenna Umscheid
Chappell Roan’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, is a phenomenal culmination of imaginative and personal pop music. Roan splices in some of her more contemplative, melancholic tracks with her jovial dance beats. The whole of which encapsulates a sweet retrospective into womanhood, as Roan participates in it. Her lyricism incorporates some big sisterly personal advice – “Don’t waste a Friday night on a first date” and “Should’ve listened to your friends about his girlfriend back in Boston” to name a few. The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is an apt name for the highs and lows of a queer woman’s bildungsroman, because Roan experiences quite a range of emotions throughout the 14 tracks. Think of the late-night energy of Lorde’s Melodrama, but if it took place in a queer club with a lot more tequila flowing. The album is like a living document of love in every shade, from one night stands, to ruining friendships, to dancing with your friends. It is fresh, original pop music, the reinvigoration the genre has been needing, blending gut punching desire with honey-drunk joy, sardonic and relatable lyricism, and colorful dance pop production to create what is truly the party girl album of the year.
The album opens with two of Roan’s most upbeat, sexy singles: “Femininomenon” and “Red Wine Supernova.” The former, released as a single in Aug. 2022, is an onomatopoeic banger focused on the inevitability of male disappointment. The latter is a sexy, only slightly vampiric ode to the magic of sapphic longing, featuring my favorite Chappell Roan bridge of all time, particularly the lyric “I heard you like magic / I’ve got a wand and a rabbit!” which is a double entendre referring to both equipment for standard magic tricks and sex toys. Both songs wrap the pain of men or the intoxicating power of women into a playful dance party track, magical storytelling that provides just a taste into the various emotions and situations that Roan will spin into stunning, refreshing pop.
These are followed by “After Midnight,” a beautiful bisexual anthem, drunk on neon lights, chronicling a partying midwest princess at a peak. Roan pokes fun at bisexual stereotypes by embracing them, singing “I kinda wanna kiss your girlfriend if you don’t mind” and “I kinda wanna kiss your boyfriend if you don’t mind.” The song also carries similar themes to “Pink Pony Club,” and the album as a whole, by straying from her mother’s opinion and engaging in nightlife and following her dreams.
The lows then follow, with the slow and solemn “Coffee.” Roan warns herself of drinking and bad decisions, the subtle dangers of nighttime, in relation to a past relationship. In the process of attempting to move on from an ex, Roan comes to the realization by the end of the song that it’s best not to have any contact at all, singing “If I didn’t love you /It would be fine / ’Cause if we do coffee / It’s never just coffee.” She laments on her pain and longing, but in the end comes to the tough decision to move on, to learn from her mistakes and close this one solemn chapter.
The next low is wrought with rightful anger in “Casual.” In a previous interview with Sarah Fournell for Milk Crate, Roan explained that the origin of the song comes directly from a relationship being labeled as casual, when to Roan it was anything but that. With this track, she sings to the painful, gut-wrenching universality of “situationships,” a term and concept that should be completely abolished. Too many women have fallen victim to what seems like deep emotional and/or physical connections that become disrespectfully brushed off as “Casual” by men who are scared of commitment.
“Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” opens with an extremely iconic spoken word section, detailing a lackluster first date in which the man wears “fugly jeans,” and Roan longs instead for a girl like her. Done with “hyper mega bummer boys,” Roan instead chooses “making out while the world collapses” with a super graphic ultra modern girl just like her, taking off to a galaxy in which none of these bummer boys are welcome.
The party continues with “HOT TO GO!,” a track where Roan indulges in her cheer fantasy, and seizes her opportunity to make a song that allows her to sing and dance to a track about being hot and sexy! Accompanied with a dance she teaches at concerts, “HOT TO GO!” is all about self-confidence and having fun, an opportunity for every girl that dreamed of being a cheerleader.
Returning to red-hot anger with “My Kink is Karma,” Roan sings about getting off on seeing the deterioration of her ex’s life. She explains that she knows that the sentiment of the song is toxic and unhealthy, but it’s also a genuine expression of emotion. The song’s intense anger is cathartic, with Roan singing “People say I’m jealous by kink is watching / You crashing your car / You breaking your heart / You thinking I care.” This track is Roan putting a signature sexy spin on her authentic emotions, acknowledging the innate human toxicity in all of us, that always seeks to win the breakup.
Though it’s her playful party tracks that garner more attention, Roan’s delightful vocals also create stunning, emotional ballads, like that of “Picture You” and “Kaleidoscope.” “Picture You” focuses on the insecurity that is inevitably wrapped in desire, wondering if the person you want thinks about you too. It’s a moment of reflection, a brief second of self-consciousness in the midst of lust and desire. “Kaleidoscope” follows with a broader lamentation on the colorful, equally gorgeous and confusing mystery of love. She explains that “It’s never just a shape alone” in “every color of the rainbow,” where love can look like so many different things, it is entirely unexplainable, but we have to live in it regardless. With the personal nature of “Kaleidoscope” she admits to us all of what she doesn’t know, and with the following track she tells us what she needs.
The chorus to “Pink Pony Club” contains the thesis of Roan’s album, particularly with the lyric “I’m gonna keep on dancing.” It tells the story of a girl leaving Tennessee to dance at a queer club in Santa Monica, at the dismay of her churchgoing mother. The song marries an unapologetic love for the stage and a desire for queer belonging with the emotional difficulty that comes with leaving home and following one’s dreams.
Roan’s hit single “Naked in Manhattan” is, like “Red Wine Supernova,” another lustful, sapphic song, this one rife with pop culture references and slumber party energy. The references range from “that Lana song it makes you cry,” to “like that one sex scene in Mulholland Drive” and “we both have a crush on Regina George,” Roan’s effortless relatability and skill for wrapping in bits of humor make this the most playful track on the album.
Before she ends the album, Roan sings about homesickness in “California,” and the sickening feeling of leaving home to chase your dreams, only to fall short. She begs to be taken out of California and return to her homeland of Missouri, having not yet achieved the success in her career that she moved to California in hopes of. The authenticity of Roan’s songwriting is what makes it so magical – every track on this album is genuine to Roan as a person and a performer.
The closing track, “Guilty Pleasure,” ends the album by learning and unlearning from the musical parables that detail the tracklist. She showcases her cheeky humorous writing with lyrics like “You’re a pothead / You’re a cinephile / It’s been awhile since you turned up the dial.” She reflects on her guilt with the lyrics “So shame on me / And shame on you” but ultimately indulges with “some good girls do bad things too.” Good girls, bad decisions, Roan turns it all into brilliant music, both participating in and reflecting on both her guilt and pleasure throughout this song, and the album as a whole.
This Midwest Princess is unequivocally true to herself, in her dancing highs and drunken lows, throughout the course of the tracklist. She reflects on her Midwestern roots and her love for her home, while defending her plight to be a pop star. Roan fully embraces the unique power of music, in how it can spin any situation – no matter how angering, heartbreaking, frustrating, or sad it is – into a stunning pop track. No other current pop girl is making music with as much sentiment, emotional power, and playfulness. This album is all the proof anyone could need that Chappell Roan is a star in every sense of the word; a meteoric rise is inevitable.