Hit it like
Femininomenon, Chappell Roan
Get it hot
Make a bitch
It’s a femme
Kayleigh Rose Amstutz better known as her alter ego or drag persona Chappell Roan has taken the world by storm this year. From being the breakout search of the year to drawing the biggest daytime crowds at one of the biggest music festivals in the world, by the start of 2025 she already had a Grammy to her name. Her album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess has turned out to be boldly rambunctious, wickedly witty and deliciously bratty in the best way possible. Chappell is one of the only mainstream openly lesbian artists in the music game. This album has her journey of coming to terms with herself and her queer identity, love and heartbreak as its central themes.
Track 1: Femininomenon
Okay, the title can be a bit of a tongue twister, Roan came up with this term herself and its difficult pronunciation was the only reason it didn’t make it as the title of the album. This song is the perfect opener as it encapsulates everything this album has in store for you.
Femininomenon is the very epitome of camp, it is catchy, preppy and SO MUCH FUN. From a fundamental question Roan asks all the ladies in the bridge of the song to the Papa John’s reference to asking to play the song with a beat.This song essentially talks about Chappell’s belief that being romantically involved with a woman is better than being with a man and that a woman should prioritise her joy and pleasure in a relationship. All ladies need a Femininomenon in some or the other way.
Track 2: Red Wine Supernova
Chappell describes this as a fun gay girl version of the song Champagne Supernova released in 1996. This is another dance-pop track with a country influence and a reference to 80’s pop. This song opens with a catchy pop beat and addresses Roan’s obsessive, unpredictable and mesmerising relationship with a woman, where she’s willing to risk it all. This track showcases Chappell’s vocal ability, especially in the crescendo of high notes at the end of the song. This is a song with clever lyricism and a sprinkle of cheeky lyrics and innuendos throughout the song.
Track 3: After Midnight
Chappell had a very religious and conservative upbringing, she was told not to go out or stay awake past a certain hour. She knows and acknowledges the fact that her father only used to say that to protect her and to ensure her safety but when she grew up and moved away, she realised that the time after midnight was the most magical, exuberant and exhilarating time of the night. This song is all about moving to LA, breaking all the rules, going against all that she had been taught and discovering that life was way more fun that way. This newfound freedom also meant being able to ditch the good girl image that she had to maintain all these years when it was something that she never quite truly identified with. It is a fun electro-pop hit where Roan sings about coming to terms with and celebrating her queer identity, and in the meantime, starting bar fights and kissing all the guys and the gals in the club.
I’ll meet you for coffee, only for coffee
Coffee, Chappell Roan
Nowhere else is safe, every place leads back to your place
Track 4: Coffee
Chappell changes the tone and beautifully transitions into a softer ballad by the name of Coffee. The song from its lyrics appears to be the aftermath of the track after this, titled Casual. Chappell is still recovering from a tumultuous relationship and although she wants to meet this person one last time to set things right and break it off once and for all, she can’t help but fall into the same pattern, time and again. In the song she vows to meet this person for coffee and only for coffee because every other bar, restaurant and park in this town holds memories they created together, some bitter, some sweet. By the end of the song Chappell makes up her mind and concludes that it’s better to not see them at all because no matter where they decide to meet, she always ends up in the same place every time. She can never seem to break out of this bitter cycle that always starts with a simple sweet coffee.
Track 5: Casual
This is one of the first singles of this album and probably one of the most raw and vulnerable ones in terms of its lyrics. Casual talks about a relationship where one person isn’t ready to commit or acknowledge attachment with the other. Chappell, throughout the song and the relationship, keeps holding on to hope that this person will eventually change and accept their feelings and desperately wishes for them to end up together. She tries so hard to be casual or nonchalant about the whole affair, to brush away the hurt that creeps in every time she is disregarded. She buries all her insecurities in her dreams for their future. But as we move to the bridge of the song she realises that she can’t be casual about it anymore, that she can’t pretend to be the ‘chill girl’ when she’s just not. The bridge is where, in crescendoing tune, Chappell lashes out confessing that instead of acknowledging their relationship and reciprocating her feelings the other person just views her like a sexual object and not someone worth committing to. In hindsight, Chappell curses herself for not realising and calling it off sooner; she hates that she couldn’t see through this person and all the awful things they did throughout their relationship.
And I try to be the chill girl
Casual, Chappell Roan
That holds her tongue and gives you space
I try to be the chill girl
But honestly, I’m not
Track 6 : Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl
We again move to an alt-pop track with a very cool and sassy spoken word intro criticising a guy who shows up in a pair of unforgivable jeans and lacks even the bare minimum charm. He won’t dance, won’t ask questions, and, honestly, doesn’t stand a chance.
In this song Roan denounces dating loser guys who can’t seem to ever get it right and that she needs a super graphic ultra modern girl just like her instead. This song is a very upbeat pop number that blends wacky theatrics and queer euphoria. The song references the planetary system, Roan saying that she’s leaving the planet and asking the super graphic ultra-modern girls to come with her.
TRACK 7 : HOT TO GO!
If you don’t know this song or how to perform its hookstep by now, I would suggest you leave everything you are doing right now and go learn it.
HOT TO GO! is the perfect pop song. Its production is much like something from a marching band which was very intentional as Chappell who always wanted to be a part of a marching band never dared to apply to the one in her school. Roan felt that she wasn’t cool enough to be in one. This song is also an ode to her inner child, to playing dress up, dancing and being as obnoxious as one possibly could.
TRACK 8 : My Kink Is Karma
This is a deliciously vengeful track addressed to an ex, who decided to break up with her at the worst possible time (4 days after she got the news that her label had dropped her). The song is an alt pop-dance pop tune, it talks about how Chappell found immense satisfaction in knowing that her ex was going through a bad time. She details all the awful things he did to her and how he is now getting his karma for all of it. Chappell takes great joy in his suffering.
TRACK 9 : Picture You
We again go back to a slower track with softer vocals. Picture You is a sultry pop track that has wistful and sensual notes infused in its backing vocals. It has raw and very open songwriting as is Roan’s brand. Her words drift apart and float in a sea of longing and yearning. Chappell attempts a brilliant vocal flip in the bridge of this song. It is a sombre song where she constantly wonders how the other person views her, if they picture her in all the different ways that she does and how she looks from their point of view.
And even upside down
Kaleidoscope, Chappell Roan
It’s beautiful somehow
It’s never just a shape alone
Love is a kaleidoscope
TRACK 10 : KALEIDOSCOPE
This is a perfect emotional ballad, that has heartbreak as its central theme. It talks about Chappell’s love for her best friend who wasn’t unreciprocated.She dares her to find someone who could write a better song for her, one with similar intensity with the same curve in the letter A and sing it with the same passion that Chappell does.This song is also a celebration of the fact that love isn’t straight (see what I did there), it isn’t linear.It can be so many different things to so many different people it can hurt you and it can change you but all of the pain caused by love doesn’t make it any less beautiful, none of the heartbreak takes away from the experience of falling in love and feeling that completely, truly and passionately, as she so eloquently writes in this song.
TRACK 11 : PINK PONY CLUB
This song is at its core a celebration of being queer. It talks about how Chappell left her small town to pursue her dreams and live a life where she truly can be herself, something that she had to suppress back from where she came from.It is a song about living loudly and being as true and open as you can to yourself. Roan talks about her mother’s expectations and hopes for her and the guilt that she carries. The nagging feeling that she is letting her mother down. Her mother still sees her as a little girl who went to church camp every summer in the town of Missouri. Roan suspects her mother’s disappointment after not being all that her mother had envisioned her little girl to turn out to be.
TRACK 12 : NAKED IN MANHATTAN
This track is a fun electro-pop sound that starts with a voice note from Chappell. This song is the feeling of a new crush, the kind that sets off a violent rush of butterflies in your stomach. Chappell encapsulates the feeling of being young and in love in Manhattan. This song is about a friendship slowly blossoming into a relationship, she also goes on to narrate several anecdotes from her relationship, like serenading her partner with the Lana song that always makes her cry to their matching star signs, she talks about the bedazzled rings and shared lip gloss and the late nights spent getting drunk and having fun.
Thought I’d be cool in California
California, Chappell Roan
I’d make you proud
To think I almost had it going
But I let you down
TRACK 13 : CALIFORNIA
This track again takes a sombre note, it is a heart-wrenching letter to California, the feeling of homesickness, of moving to a new city with all sorts of hopes and dreams and seeing them all fade one by one as the feeling of not belonging. Roan was told to go back home when she was dropped from her label and was trying to work multiple jobs just to sustain herself. This song is a plea to get her out of California, of wanting to go back to her beloved hometown after feeling like she is in the same place as when she first stepped foot in California.A feeling of confusion and loss that increases as the production builds up.She has made up her mind to leave this place, and even love cannot persuade her once all hope is gone. There is no point in holding on to the shadow of hope, to the mere pretence of it, when somewhere in your heart, you have already accepted defeat.
TRACK 14 : GUILTY PLEASURE
She ends the album with another fun alt-pop number, this song is about a very passionate teenage girl crush. There is also an insinuation of shame whenever she talks about liking or being intimate with another girl. Growing up in a very orthodox, Christian household, where homosexuality is still seen as some kind of grave sin. Having all sorts of romantic and sexual fantasies for someone from the same gender left her with a sense of guilt and ignominy.
God, what have you done?
Pink Pony Club, Chappell Roan
You’re a pink pony girl
And you dance at the club
Oh mama, I’m just having fun
On the stage in my heels
It’s where I belong
This album is an amalgamation of all things fun, wacky, exciting, queer and colourful! I would recommend everyone to leave everything at hand and go listen to this album if they haven’t yet!
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