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The Midwest Princess is back. While headlining the Midwest Princess Tour and concluding her opening run on Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘GUTS’ World Tour, Chappell Roan released her latest beautifully crafted single,“Good Luck, Babe!”
Known for her vibrant pop sound and catchy lyrics that touch on themes of love, sex, finding oneself, queerness, and femininity, Roan doesn’t stray far from the glorious sonic excess of her debut album “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.” Though Roan posted on her Instagram, “We are entering a new chapter of the project and im exploring it right along with you,” the track feels at home within the rest of her discography.
Starting off with a distinctly ’80s synth beat, the instrumentals of “Good Luck, Babe!” keep with the laser sounds on “Naked In Manhattan” and the pulsing electronic dance beat on “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl.” Despite this, the track’s sound is still distinct, utilizing Roan’s vocals to unite her ’80s inspiration with her unmistakable campy energy. The song’s mid-tempo start doesn’t detract from this effort, instead setting the stage for Roan’s vocals to work alongside the instrumental track and develop a satisfying build-up to the chorus.
Roan starts off reproachful. As she sings. “It’s fine, it’s cool / You can say that we’re nothing but you know the truth,” her contempt is audible just beneath the surface. Moving into the pre-chorus, she picks up the tempo and builds up to the high note at the end of the line— “You only wanna be the one that I call baby” — that sets off the chorus.
For all its simplicity, the chorus is no less gratifying. Singing in falsetto, Roan continues, “You can kiss a hundred boys in bars / shoot another shot, try to stop the feeling” before her own lavish backing vocals join at the end. “Good Luck, Babe!” tells the story of letting go of someone deeply in denial of their sexuality and knowing you’ll be better for it. From the rich verses to the bouncy chorus and fiery bridge, Roan skillfully explores both the pain and the freedom of losing someone who can’t love you like they should, alongside the prideful contempt of telling them “I told you so.”
The craftsmanship in developing this theme is evident throughout the track. The second verse and chorus both feature melancholy strings in the instrumental, emphasizing not only the somber tone of the verse as Roan sings, “And I cry, it’s not fair / I just need a little lovin’ I just need a little air,” but also creating a sense of nostalgia for what could have been.
The abundance of sonic texture doesn’t stop there. As the pre-chorus wanes, Roan’s ethereal yet haunting vocals introduce the spiteful fire of the bridge. She sings, “When you wake up next to him in the middle of the night / with your head in your hands, you’re nothing more than his wife” and shames the subject for not listening to her. Her fiery tone in these lines adds a potency to the lyrics before returning to the chorus — now with the “so” of her “I told you so” from the bridge layered on top, which adds more dimension to the track.
“Good Luck, Babe!” concludes with the repeating refrain, “You’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling.” As the track inches towards its end, Roan slows her singing while reverb is added and the instrumentals die down. She’s stopping the world of the song, leaving open the question of whether it can really be possible to stop “this feeling.” The outro’s gradual tapering is a fulfilling conclusion to the robust song, inviting endless future listening.
Roan’s newest single is an exciting taste of her future era, building on the unique themes and powerful sound she’s established in her previous album and cementing Roan as part of pop music’s future.
—Staff writer Anna Moiseieva can be reached at anna.moiseieva@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @AMoiseieva.
