The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 22, 2023 | |||
Recorded | 2018–2023 | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length | 49:08 | |||
Label |
| |||
Producer |
| |||
Chappell Roan chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess | ||||
|
The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess is the debut studio album by American singer and songwriter Chappell Roan, released on September 22, 2023, through Amusement Records, an imprint of Island Records owned by the album's producer, Dan Nigro. Primarily a pop record, Midwest Princess also contains elements of synth-pop, pop rock, new wave, folk-pop, dance-pop, and disco.
Written and produced alongside Nigro beginning in 2018, Midwest Princess is noted for its "campy" pop sound and influence from queer performance art such as drag shows. The album is inspired by Roan's experience leaving her hometown in Missouri for Los Angeles to pursue a career as a singer. During her journey of self-discovery, Roan navigated love, heartbreak, and embraced her queer identity – themes that would become central to the record. After being dropped by her label, Roan continued her career as an independent artist, releasing songs that would form the foundation of Midwest Princess.
Midwest Princess was met with widespread acclaim and praised by music critics for its bold, innovative, and emotionally charged nature. Reviews also complimented the album's engaging blend of sharp songwriting, dynamic pop elements, and Roan's vocal performance. Several publications ranked it on multiple year-end best albums lists for 2023.
Although not an immediate commercial success, Midwest Princess garnered a cult following in the months after its release and became regarded as a "sleeper hit" by early 2024. The album's commercial breakthrough was largely influenced by Roan's supporting act on Olivia Rodrigo's Guts World Tour, her performances at music festivals like Coachella and Governors Ball, and the success of her follow-up single, "Good Luck, Babe!". By June 2024, Midwest Princess had climbed the charts, peaking within the top ten on the Billboard 200. Subsequently, several of its singles ("Pink Pony Club", "Red Wine Supernova", and "Hot to Go!") entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time since their release.
Roan promoted the album by headlining the Midwest Princess Tour in 2023 and 2024, along with appearances on NPR Music's Tiny Desk Concerts series, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert , and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon .
Roan was signed to Atlantic Records and living in Los Angeles by 2017, when she released the EP School Nights, a "folk-leaning" project that she later admitted she "hated". In 2018, Roan started working with Dan Nigro, eventually releasing the album's first single, "Pink Pony Club", in April 2020 after Atlantic Records had said "no" to the song "for a year". Roan ultimately was dropped by Atlantic later in 2020. In addition to breaking up with her boyfriend of over four years and the COVID-19 pandemic, Roan moved back to her home state of Missouri. She worked jobs to save money to move back to Los Angeles, at which point she resumed working with Nigro, and signed to his Island Records imprint Amusement. [1] Roan said that The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess allowed her to "come to accept [her] queerness". [2]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
DIY | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Line of Best Fit | 9/10 [5] |
NME | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Paste | 8.4/10 [7] |
Pitchfork | 7.2/10 [8] |
Olivia Horn of Pitchfork called the album "a bold and uproarious introduction, buoyed by sturdy songcraft and steely indifference to good taste", also writing that Roan is "blessed with a powerful and versatile voice". [8] Otis Robinson of DIY summarized it as "thoughtful, a little unhinged and entirely contradictory, merging the alt-pop seriousness of Lana Del Rey with the untethered preppy charm of Lorde to go full throttle into messy, emotional fun". [4]
NME 's Hannah Mylrea dubbed it a "bratty, wacky record of huge pop bangers" as well as an "album that combines Roan's electrifying pop stylings with her funny, irresistible songwriting". [6] Sam Franzini of The Line of Best Fit opined that Roan "is a blazing tour-de-force on her debut album. She tackles every corner of human sexuality, psychology, desire, and lust, all on some of the hookiest choruses of this year". [5] Robert Moran of The Sydney Morning Herald described it as "pop at its most fun and life-affirming". [9]
The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess was included in several best-albums-of-2023 year-end lists, being ranked in those by TheA.V. Club (2nd), [10] TIME (4th), [11] Nylon (8th), [12] Dork (11th), [13] Rolling Stone (12th), [14] Billboard (13th), [15] The Skinny (19th), [16] Uproxx (1 of 74 unranked albums), [17] Alternative Press (1 of 50 unranked albums), [18] and Vogue (1 of 27 unranked albums). [19] It was also listed as one of Pitchfork 's 22 Best Pop Albums of 2023 [20] and was named Pop Buzz's Number One Album of 2023. [21]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Femininomenon" | 3:39 | ||
2. | "Red Wine Supernova" |
| 3:12 | |
3. | "After Midnight" |
| Nigro | 3:24 |
4. | "Coffee" |
| Nigro | 3:25 |
5. | "Casual" |
|
| 3:52 |
6. | "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl" |
|
| 3:03 |
7. | "Hot to Go!" |
| Nigro | 3:04 |
8. | "My Kink Is Karma" |
| Nigro | 3:42 |
9. | "Picture You" |
| Nigro | 3:07 |
10. | "Kaleidoscope" | Amstutz | Nigro | 3:42 |
11. | "Pink Pony Club" |
| Nigro | 4:18 |
12. | "Naked in Manhattan" |
| Nigro | 3:31 |
13. | "California" |
| Nigro | 3:18 |
14. | "Guilty Pleasure" |
| Nigro | 3:44 |
Total length: | 49:08 |
Note
Musicians
Technical
Chart (2024) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (ARIA) [22] | 4 |
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [23] | 41 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [24] | 36 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [25] | 153 |
Canadian Albums ( Billboard ) [26] | 7 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [27] | 21 |
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista) [28] | 27 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [29] | 82 |
Icelandic Albums (Plötutíðindi) [30] | 18 |
Irish Albums (OCC) [31] | 3 |
Lithuanian Albums (AGATA) [32] | 43 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [33] | 3 |
Portuguese Albums (AFP) [34] | 151 |
Scottish Albums (OCC) [35] | 6 |
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) [36] | 70 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [37] | 56 |
UK Albums (OCC) [38] | 5 |
US Billboard 200 [39] | 5 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
United Kingdom (BPI) [40] | Silver | 60,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
"The Real Slim Shady" is a song by American rapper Eminem from his third album The Marshall Mathers LP (2000). It was released as the lead single a month before the album's release.
Body Language is the ninth studio album by Australian singer Kylie Minogue. It was released on 10 November 2003 by Parlophone. Following the commercial success of her eighth studio album Fever (2001), Minogue enlisted a diverse group of writers and producers to aid in creating a new album, including Cathy Dennis, Dan Carey, Emiliana Torrini, Johnny Douglas, and Kurtis Mantronik among others. Influenced by the musical works of the 1980s and artists like Prince and Scritti Politti, Body Language musically differs from Minogue's previous albums, which mainly featured disco-oriented dance-pop tracks, and instead explores genres like synth-pop, electroclash, R&B, and hip hop. Lyrically, the album touches upon themes of flirtation, romance, introspection and heartbreak.
Under My Skin is the second studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne. It was released firstly in Europe on May 21, 2004 then it followed the release in the rest of the world on May 25, 2004 by Arista Records and RCA Records. Lavigne wrote most of the album with singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, who invited her to a Malibu in-house recording studio shared by Kreviazuk and her husband Raine Maida, where Lavigne recorded many of the songs. The album was produced by Maida, Don Gilmore, and Butch Walker. It is Lavigne's second and final studio album to be released on Arista, following Let Go (2002). It was also her first album for RCA.
The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album is a soundtrack album from the film of the same name, released on November 17, 1992, by Arista Records. The album's first side features songs recorded by American singer Whitney Houston, who starred in the film, while side two features the work of various artists. Houston and Clive Davis were co-executive producers of the record.
Falling into You is the fourteenth studio album and fourth English-language album by Canadian singer Celine Dion, released on 11 March 1996 by Sony Music. The follow-up to her blockbuster album The Colour of My Love (1993) and French-language D'eux (1995), Falling into You showed a further progression of Dion's music. Throughout the project she collaborated with Jim Steinman, who wrote and produced "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", among others. Several songs were produced by David Foster, including Diane Warren's "Because You Loved Me". In total, Dion worked on the album with fourteen producers and a variety of songwriters and musicians.
Fearless is the second studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Under the Big Machine Records imprint, it was released in the United States and Canada on November 11, 2008, and elsewhere on March 9, 2009.
Speak Now is the third studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 25, 2010, by Big Machine Records. Swift wrote the album entirely herself within two years while touring to promote her second studio album, Fearless (2008), to reflect on her transition from adolescence to adulthood.
Born to Die is the second and debut major-label studio album by American singer-songwriter, and record producer Lana Del Rey. It was released on January 27, 2012, through Interscope Records and Polydor Records. A reissue of the album, subtitled The Paradise Edition, was released on November 9, 2012. The new material from the reissue was also made available on a separate EP titled Paradise.
Daniel Leonard Nigro is an American musician, songwriter, instrumentalist, and record producer. He was the lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band As Tall as Lions. Nigro has produced, written, and co-written songs for Sky Ferreira, Kylie Minogue, Caroline Polachek, Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan, and Conan Gray. He won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album for producing Sour in 2021. He was named as the Songwriter of the Year at the 2024 ASCAP Pop Music Awards.
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Billie Eilish. It was released on March 29, 2019, by Darkroom and Interscope Records in the US and Polydor Records in the UK. Eilish, aged 17 at the time of release, largely wrote the album with her brother Finneas O'Connell, who produced it at his small bedroom studio in Highland Park, Los Angeles.
Sour is the debut studio album by the American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo. It was released on May 21, 2021, by Geffen Records. The album was written by Rodrigo and producer Dan Nigro. Originally planned as an EP, Sour was expanded into a full-length album following the viral success of her debut single, "Drivers License".
Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, known professionally as Chappell Roan, is an American singer and songwriter. Working with collaborator Dan Nigro, the majority of her music is inspired by 1980s synth-pop and early 2000s pop hits. Her aesthetic is heavily influenced by drag queens, and her music and performing style have been described as "campy".
"Pink Pony Club" is a 2020 song by American pop musician Chappell Roan featured on the artist's 2023 album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.
Superache is the second studio album by American singer and songwriter Conan Gray, released on June 24, 2022, through Republic Records. It is a follow-up to Gray's debut album Kid Krow (2020). Described by Gray as an expansion of his yearning heartbreak, the album touches on themes such as childhood trauma, abuse, friendship, and love, as of his experiences growing up.
Sonder is the second studio album by Irish singer-songwriter Dermot Kennedy, released on 18 November 2022 through Riggins Recording, Interscope Records and Island Records. Originally scheduled to be released on 23 September 2022, its release was delayed twice: first to 4 November, then 18 November, with the latter due to the UK postal strike. The album was preceded by the singles "Better Days", "Something to Someone" and "Kiss Me", with "Innocence and Sadness" and "Dreamer" also released prior to the album. Kennedy will tour Europe, the UK and North America in 2023 in support of the record.
Guts is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo, released on September 8, 2023, through Geffen Records. It was written and recorded with Rodrigo working closely alongside Dan Nigro, the producer and multi-instrumentalist of her debut album Sour (2021). Inspired by the period of time immediately following Sour's success, Rodrigo conceived Guts hoping to reflect the process of maturity she experienced toward the end of her teenage years.
"Red Wine Supernova" is a song by American singer-songwriter Chappell Roan. It was released in May 2023 as the eighth single from Roan's debut studio album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. The song began charting in April 2024, following the success of "Good Luck, Babe!".
"Hot to Go!" is a song by American singer-songwriter Chappell Roan, released on August 11, 2023, as the ninth single from her debut studio album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (2023). It was written by Roan and Dan Nigro, and produced by Nigro.
"Good Luck, Babe!" is a song by American singer-songwriter Chappell Roan. It was released as a single on April 5, 2024, through Amusement Records and Island Records. She wrote the song along with Justin Tranter and Dan Nigro, with the latter producing it. The song speaks about compulsory heterosexuality, describing a woman trying to deny her romantic feelings for Roan and women in general.
The Midwest Princess Tour is the ongoing second headlining tour from American pop musician Chappell Roan. The tour, promoting her album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, started on September 25, 2023, at the Goldfield Trading Company in Sacramento, United States, and it's scheduled to end on October 11, 2024, at the Zilker Park in Austin, after 86 concerts in 9 countries and 3 continents.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)