All hail Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, AKA Chappell Roan

oh, she's more convincing than Perry.

Thanks, map. I'll give the album another try. I do hear the worldliness.

tbh i didn't really get what the fuss was all about until i heard all of those kids singing it.

i feel like there's also a kind of "fartiness" to the production on the songs, like a brown plastic sound (sorry for the gross metaphor), it seems to communicate that she doesn't want to be seen that she takes herself too seriously. i noticed the same style in the sabrina carpenter songs.

I don't know if this holds water, but thinking again of 20-somethings growing up on Kidz Bop versions of pop songs, with their chintzier production, and playing a bit into that nostalgia (unbridled kid-like singalongs, but also as Azaelia said, songs about being a woman, not a girl).

Oh, well if there's a fartiness to this, I guess I'll go check it out.

Chappell Roan is expected to chart five singles on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 (dated July 6th, 2024), all at new peaks:

#11. (+5) Good Luck, Babe!
#38. (+17) Hot To Go!
#46. (+8) Red Wine Supernova
#66. (+24) Pink Pony Club
#83. (NEW) Casual pic.twitter.com/70qmjvBafv

— Talk of the Charts (@talkofthecharts) June 30, 2024

The production is the only weak point to me, tho its datedness makes it feel kind of relatably affordable or something… the Midwest adopting like an old idea of mainstreamed indie, idk. But she’s a huge talent / persona / force of nature, her star& vision makes the production feel like it’s struggling keep up with her like she just wills these aspiring 2008 Robyn sounds into good-enough canvasses …. Imho

(is she writing these songs or does she have help, i genuinely don't know?)

Album was produced and mostly co-written by Dan Nigro, who performed same duties on Olivia Rodrigo's albums. (And has written with/produced assorted others.)

maybe robyn with the house/dance elements removed? i don’t really hear robyn otherwise, she would never be caught dead using the cheerleader gang vocals that pop up throughout “red wine supernova,” for example. it feels like teenage dream-era katy perry but with smarter lyrics and supreme vocal control

i agree that the production is the weak point, but i appreciate that she doesn’t go fully into camp or 80s nostalgia (“hot to go” and its clear toni basil inspo, notwithstanding). it’s a tricky balance because these songs are clearly massive and arena-ready, but until “good luck babe,” the production has kind of been…humble?

I guess I hear katy Perry on “red wine supernova” but her three biggest records (“good luck babe” “hot to go” “pink pony club”) all feel like late aughts indie efforts at 80s pastiche. Like bat for lashes era shit. “Pink pony club” is very fake Kate bush right, but also kind of “modern” in an mgmt era sense (Which is kind of what I mean about the production feeling more slight than the songwriting and performances).

The album itself has production that’s also kind of all over the place imo like you can id different pop referents but to me the albums spirit is just not something I locate in the production which feels kind of “servicey”

TS: "Pink Pony Club" vs. New Young Pony Club

What immediately came to mind for me was Marina and the Diamonds circa Electra Heart; there's also a theatre-kid quality to what she's doing that scanned more like... Born This Way Gaga than Katy Perry to me. But to be honest I only gave the album a couple of plays when it came out last September, took "Super Graphic..." and ran, so I'd have to revisit it to see if that opinion still holds.

By Robyn I’m thinking of “dancing on my own” era more than “honey” era

She sounds exactly what I would imagine Katy Perry to sound like if she was a member of Gen Z.

The singles are pretty irresistible!

"Casual" is killer. No wonder Katie Pruitt covers it.

katy perry if she could sing and had good songs

"Casual" is also a perfect song if you don't really need a new Taylor Swift song but you don't want to give up that kind of pop.

I thought of Katy Perry in part because I remember hanging out with some friends and their five-year-old daughter in 2010, and the kid sang the "Hot N Cold" chorus nonstop and loved Gaga's "Bad Romance" too; and now that kid is 19 and at Berkeley, and I imagine Roan hitting that balance between nostalgia for being five and being a young woman in college.

i like your kidz bop theory btw.. that's kinda what the production reminds me of most.

bat for lashes era shit

you have a weird sense for what Bat for Lashes sounds like

anyway I tried the album and liked it slightly more than my first attempt to listen to her which, it turns out, was HOT TO GO which I still think is terrible. But the new single is better than anything i heard on the album. I could really do without those horrible cheerleader bvox, it reminds me of the worst parts of Born to Die and Electrheart.

when i first heard her i admired her lyrical candor, how she included things in her songs other artists would be too embarrassed or self-conscious to, and in that respect she brought to mind early kesha for me

I could really do without those horrible cheerleader bvox

otm

you have a weird sense for what Bat for Lashes sounds like

he's right about the late 00s indie pastiching the 80s bit, just not the bat for lashes reference in particular

this thread clearly wants her to be less annoying i see but i dont because she’s having fun and that makes me have fun

i think Good Luck Babe is super fun and I enjoy it. I heard it on the radio (in Mexico City) for the first time this week and had to shazam it which is what led me to giving her a second listen.

i think Good Luck Babe is super fun and I enjoy it. I heard it on the radio (in Mexico City) for the first time this week and had to shazam it which is what led me to giving her a second listen.

― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Wednesday, July 3, 2024 9:17 PM

The melodic ascension into the chorus is some serious Robyn/Max Martin "music = math" rowdiness, but the real triumph is the bridge, with those "Call Me Maybe" strings, the extra bite she adds to the vocal before winding it down, then screaming at us like Ani in "The Million You Never Made" as it literally goes off the rails, like when my 3rd-grade neighbor's battery-operated ladybug record player died before finishing side 2 of Pat Benatar's "Crimes of Passion"

*applause*

BABY DO YOU LIKE THIS BEAT?????
I MADE IT SO YOU’D SLEEP WITH MEEEE

he's right about the late 00s indie pastiching the 80s bit, just not the bat for lashes reference in particular

― ufo, Wednesday, July 3, 2024 9:14 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Im thinking of “Daniel” specifically, that sounds exactly like the sound I mean

will preface this by saying I’m completely out of the market these days for teen pop or whatever you might call this, but my fiancée was playing some of her songs in the car the other day and when “pink pony club” came on I had to be like — wait, who is THIS? incredible track, makes me hopeful that there are other artists out there doing kate bush pastiche after that brief buzz “stranger things” seemed to have augured

about halfway through the rest of her stuff and while it’s fine it’s nothing special, as others have mentioned kind of a gen Z theater kid coded katy perry or gaga, not terribly dissimilar to what taylor swift seems to be going for these days I guess

"Pink Pony Club" achieves what "Florida!!!" was aiming for.

yeah I like PPC too, I thought it was going to be massively annoying based on the title alone but it isn't at all. I like the video too.

i am hosting a chappell roan night next saturday

Is it at a club? I've been seeing those types of nights popping up all over in the past few weeks.

yeah

OK this is embarrassing but I'm just gonna say it -- I listened to the album a lot in the runup to seeing her open for Olivia Rodrigo, really liked the songs, really liked her set, but had no idea there was anything queer about her or her music until she started blowing up about a month later

Like that half of her songs are about girl-girl sex?

I could see missing it really. I first read about her as a “lesbian pop princess” or something, so she arrived pre-queer-coded for me.

I knew the songs were about sex, I just didn't register anything about the gender of the other person or people involved!

album was introduced to me as a sort-of concept album about giving up on dating straight men and entering one’s gay era and it is one of the reasons i ended up loving her music a lot yes

same for me, eephus. when she's singing to the other party "you" gives nothing away. probably there are other lyrical clues certainly good luck babe is obvious in hindsight but even then I thought with the "you" she was referring to herself.

it's fine not to pay too much attention to lyrics but yeah they're pretty explicit! have a read at "Naked In Manhattan".

I'm not sure "Red Wine Supernova" or "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl" could be more obvious lol

well, yeah.

Yeah I'm notorious for missing the meaning of lyrics but "Red Wine Supernova" basically screams its meaning

finally listened to the whole thing lol. i think it's very good, a few more forgettable tracks but some of the slow songs are among the best ("kaleidoscope," which looks like a sole amstutz credit.)

sole amstutz writing credit tbc

sole amstutz writing credit

Title for the belabored sophomore follow-up

"Chappell Roan says she’s “pumped the brakes” on fame after fans give off “stalker vibes”"

https://www.nme.com/news/music/chappell-roan-says-shes-pumped-the-brakes-on-fame-after-fans-give-off-stalker-vibes-3775922

ITEM soooo a very beautiful young woman friend of ours works in a high-end attelier in new york and she told us that chappell roan came through two weeks ago. after giving 'don't talk to me' vibes CR pulled a bit of a diva card before leaving, saying something like "it's great that you're so friendly, most people don't realize how much money i make" lol.

That sucks but oh I love her. The album is great and she's always fabulous but it was when she performed in what was basically Divine drag that really got me. I think she's fantastic (and hope that story isn't true or at least maybe there was a reason she was an asshole).

Wrong thread.

the idea of looking at chappell roan as a rich person is funny to me. i don’t think that’s what is happening here

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Monday, March 30, 2026 11:40 AM bookmarkflaglink

And Jorginho, who kicked this all off, has like three times CR's net worth

fwiw when I tried to actually figure out what the story is here (which I failed at, but tbf I didn't try hard), a lot of it did come across as insane rich people stuff, though mostly from the kid's parents who posted some insanely entitled nonsense

otm. I mean maybe the kid told their parents "I want her to suffer, Don Corleone" but something tells me it was more a case of protective parents with a sphere of influence and notoriety hitting back at the person they think hurt their kid. Who may well be embarrassed at being the center of this story 5 years from now

Can't say for sure my parents wouldn't have taken out an op-ed and made a TV movie about my bully Drew who lived across the street if they had the means, but I'd have resented them for my entire adult life for it. Especially if they didn't get someone cool to play me.

we thinking someone like Kirk Cameron? he's available.

Footballer Jorginho Frello says he “regrets the impact” the security guard situation had on Chappell Roan:

“It was, ultimately, a misunderstanding in that respect, and I am glad to set the record straight. It's important to me that this is clarified fairly and accurately.” pic.twitter.com/xfnqejpDCz

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) April 13, 2026

wow what a dickhead

Well he did play for Chelsea and Arsenal