Chappell Roan: 'WTF Buttercup' REACTION
Added 2025-04-17 14:57:56 +0000 UTCWhat a gorgeous demo this was! Chapell has such amazing B sides (not really very B-Side at all though.) She has to do something with every single one of these songs! That's my professional opinion! What did you think of this one?
Comments
I think it would be interesting for you to react to an early work like Die Young or School Nights
A-a-Ron
2025-04-18 02:40:45 +0000 UTCAfternoon Tim, I enjoyed your pick of WTF Buttercup from the pile of options I gave you. I find it one of her more interesting unreleased pieces, and you touched on a few in your review. WTF's creation is placed in the period when Chappell was developing material for CR1 (Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess) after she had returned to Califoirnia to see if she could make a go of things with one last try. She probably was still not signed to Island at this point and was lableless, and still very much working a lot of random jobs and still finding herself in many ways. The line "What am I doing out here" in WTF has two interpretations by her fanbase. The first is literal, "What am I doing here in California trying this again?" expressing the normal doubts that someone who has been working Artistically for many years often feels when they have not seen much forward progress yet. If this is the case then it plants the songs creation very firmly in the CR1 development cycle. To further support this, her demos of pieces that did make it onto CR1 like this demo of Picture You https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zWIeX1E2FM share a similar sound quality in her self made simple backings as she worked out the lyrics. So much of CR1 was born in her apartment with her light synth keyboard, and iPhone as recording device. The second interpretation is that the line is her still searching for aspects of herself and sexuality. "What am I doing pursuing some of these relationships?" reinforced by the dreamy closing bits of "I want to be your girlfriend." and "I just want to be." These themes are often in her demos of this period, and in several tracks that made it to CR1 (Naked in Manhattan for example) and mark a specific point in both her personal and musical development. And there is the third path, the lyrics mean both. So often Chappell layers multiple meanings in her lyrics that talk to one, two, or even three meanings at once. And this is the option that I personally tend to believe holds for WTF. WTF was 'released' to the world in the way that all of Chappell's demos seem to be; by her own hand. On one of her Instagram live chats in 2023 she gave the url of a personal sound cloud that she used, that was packed full of things that a handful of fans of course copied and released into the wilds of YouTube. WTF was one of those pieces, along with a lot of demos of pieces that ended up on CR1 and some other orphan unreleased that we've not seen any word of elsewhere. She seems to enjoy hearing fan reaction to her in process work for personal reasons that I feel probably lay in getting some distance from the work to see it better. Of course it creates a lot of what she calls "Demo-itis" at the same time with people falling in love with the unfinished pieces and being janky about the finalized ones. But it seems to be her way of it for whatever reasons. Tim, as usual you caught her subtle racy lyrics which is one of her writing hallmarks, but you also noted the vocal sounds that mirror arousal, which few do. She does this very often, and both Picture you and Kink is my Karma feature distinct moments when her singing mirrors the cadence of getting off (to be polite) quite blatantly. But I do agree, the vocal sounds in WTF do fit that pattern also, and I do believe are designed to show arousal/passion. Most people don't twig to these vocal sound aspects except at the most blatant (Kink is Karma) so a nice catch. I also agree with your assessment that the piece is very 'stable' in tempo and sound. It keeps to a very narrow band of sonic 'feeling' and is different from most of the other pieces we've seen formally released by Chappell on CR1. I think it's the very lack of that dynamic aspect that cost WTF a place on CR1. Coffee, Kaleidoscope, Picture You and California all hold down the 'quieter' piece places on CR1 and all of them are superior to WTF in dynamics in my opinion. WTF while very good and interesting, simply couldn't make it over the bar that was needed to make CR1 I believe. The piece is probably one of the 5 or so pieces (Which included the Giver, and still include Subway and Read & Make Out) that fans want to see more of. But it didn't make the Givers lyric video easter egg opening, so I personally feel that it will remain orphaned. Unfortunate but given how many songs Chappell writes and raw demos they can't all make it. But thanks to her leakiness we still can enjoy them sometimes, like we have with WTF here. WTF is interesting because it's of a piece with other songs that she created when in the transition phase from being dropped by Atlantic and starting in on CR1 in earnest with Dan. It's a period when she was still finding her sound and self that is rather distinct. You can hear a lot of that on CR1 which was born in that time. To me that album is very aptly titled as "The Rise and Fall of a Midwestern Princess" as the songs to me sound like bits and pieces of her life and outlook over a period of years as she found herself personally and musically. Which makes it all the more impressive in its coherence as a whole work. Chappell of course gets the lions share of the credit there, but I also feel Dan as Producer was a huge factor in making that album a cohesive whole. I'm glad that I can put some of these works in better perspective for you and the others here. It's nice to be able to see what others think of them who are not deep inside her fan community, as it often sheds new insights that had not occurred to me. As what to do next Chappell wise? For short one-offs the rest of the list that I suggested to you Tim, still pretty much holds. If you want to do a long form of her, then the Elton Oscar show would be my pick. I hope the week is good for you and you enjoyed your review blast today.
Jevon Kasitch
2025-04-17 17:49:50 +0000 UTC
