Single Review: Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe!

Chappell Roan reminds me a lot of Allie X. In the sense that she is such a chameleon. With looks and sounds which change on a whim, it’s hard to really pin her down to a particular style that you could deem is her signature. An artist which has come up a lot as a comparison is Lady Gaga. And I get it. But the thing with Lady Gaga that I think people overlook, is that there was always a throughline with her. Throughout The Fame, despite all of the different looks, the constant was her platinum blonde hair. And she definitely had a signature sound, thanks in part to RedOne. So there was always a sense of who Lady Gaga was and what her brand was. With Roan, that’s not always been the case. But as she grows in popularity and is platformed more and more, you begin to get a better sense of her brand and how much intentionality there is in what she does. Even the cover art for “Good Luck, Babe!” featuring her with a pig snout went over my head at first, until the light blub turned on and I realised it was in reference to the film.

“Good Luck, Babe!” provides a really great nexus point for Roan, in addition to being a place from which she can build out as she enters this new phase of her career. Because not only is “Good Luck, Babe!” just a great song, but it showcases enough of Roan that you get a much clearer sense of who she is. It’s what I’d deem a definitive Chappell Roan song. The same way “Bad Romance” is for Lady Gaga.

As with all good pop songs, “Good Luck, Babe!” feels immediately familiar and sounds like something you’ve heard before. And much like Lady Gaga, Roan isn’t going for prim, proper and cute. She is going for fun and theatrics. Lady Gaga looked to theatrical queens such as Elton John, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury. Roan seems to have looked to Kate Bush for “Good Luck, Babe!”. And if she didn’t intentionally look at Kate’s bush as a reference (sorry, couldn’t help myself) then it is a cosmic coincidence. Because it really does sound and feel like a lesbian Kate Bush song, and is glorious in part because of it.

There is a lot to like about “Good Luck, Babe!”. But amidst the great songwriting, the stellar production and the vocals which dropkick you outta nowhere in the latter part of the song, Roan really shines as a storyteller. Good lyrics are one thing. But to deliver them in a way which hooks you and really has you zone into what the song is about, is another, and Roan gets it. She performs the song in such a way that it sounds like a cross between a conversation and a monologue. But Roan also does a great job of selling how she feels about it. She’s like ‘Well, you made that choice’. But she’s also like ‘Fuck you, bitch’. But she’s also like ‘I’M FUCKING PISSED’. But she’s also like ‘I’m hurt’. In addition to ‘That could never be me’. And you get a clear sense of when she’s in each of these feelings throughout the song. The ‘good luck, babe’ of it all is as much an affirmation for Roan herself to get through the hurt of the end of a relationship, as it is a kiss-off to the other woman she’s singing about. It’s such a fun song to listen to because of how Roan is able to convey all of these things and that she bothered. Because it’d be easy to just sing the song from top to bottom without any of this nuance—something which was highlighted when Sabrina Carpenter covered the song. Carpenter’s cover was nice. But it lacked the dynamics and storytelling through performance that Roan brought to the song. And this is great for Roan, because it really shows that she isn’t just singing these songs. She’s performing and bringing something extra to them in a way that not just any and everybody can.

And because of how much nuance and drama there is in Roan’s performance of “Good Luck, Babe!”, I can imagine this being a popular song that drag queens perform. It wouldn’t surprise me if Roan pictured a drag performance when she was conceiving the song and how she’d sing it. “Good Luck, Babe!”is absolutely going to feature in a future season of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

But the moment when “Good Luck, Babe!” fully had me sold was the bridge section. Bridges in pop songs, or just songs in general, have been on the verge of extinction for years now. So it’s nice to hear a song with a really good bridge, which builds and ends with a climax.

Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe! | Amusement Records / KRA International Inc.

“Good Luck, Babe!” is produced by Dan Nigro, who is probably best known for his work with Olivia Rodrigo. And whilst I think his work with her is great, there’s this extra bit of fairy dust in his music with Roan, which is probably because…of Roan. He really switches into a different gear with her, and it’s so cool to hear. Roan’s debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess did have odd songs on it which I could imagine Rodrigo doing. But “Good Luck, Babe!” feels like Roan is moving into this new space which feels a lot more exclusive to her. But it’s refreshing to hear a producer create these separate musical worlds for artists he works with. This sounds like a strange thing to say. Because, ‘Duh’. Of course a producer should try to craft different sounds for different artists. But so often producers will hit big with one sound, and then just give that sound to everybody. And we’re at a time in music where SO much of what is put out is purposely made to sound like everything else. And I know, I know. If this were a video, somebody would run back the part where I said ‘“Good Luck, Babe!” feels immediately familiar and sounds like something you’ve heard before, as should be the case with all good pop songs’. But there is a difference between a song sounding familiar, and a song sounding exactly like something else, with the purpose of it to just sound exactly like another song. And as a result, a lot of these bedroom producers who are coming up aren’t able to develop any range, because they’re just so locked into one sound. And record labels these days aren’t trying to develop artists and put them in rooms with producers who can help them create a sound which isn’t just whatever so-and-so is doing. So, Nigro being paired with these pop girls who just wanna write good songs and aren’t hung up on trying to sound exactly like that other girl who released that song feels like a breath of fresh air. [Looks over at Madison Beer, who seems to just want to be Ariana Grande. And Camila Cabello, who seems to suddenly want to be Charli XCX].

I’m excited about the prospect of what Roan’s next album is going to sound like. And what Nigro’s approach will be when he inevitably starts working with a bevy of other pop stars. Will he manage to still keep the integrity and specificity of his sounds for each person he works with? Or will he end up like Jack Antanoff—just having this blanket sound he gives everybody.

A big part of what makes these Nigro pairings work is the songwriting. Olivia Rodrigo’s music is very reflective of her age and her own experiences. She isn’t trying to be particularly cool, which is actually something I find charming about her music. She’s a bit of a nerdy girl. And with Roan, it’s a similar thing. But the way in which they write paired with Nigro’s production, takes these slices of life stories and adds this gloss to them. Roan’s songwriting tends to have just a smidge more gloss than Olivia’s, which is probably because she is older, queer and has just experienced things differently. But another reason is that Roan frequently works with other songwriters, where-as Rodrigo does not. And whilst Roan has shown she can pen a fun, witty pop song with a great hook without a team of songwriters, shown to great effect on “Hot to Go”—there is this extra something “Good Luck, Babe!” has, which may come courtesy of co-writer, Justin Tranter. You may not know who this is. But run a Google search on him and you’ll realise that you know A LOT of the songs he’s co-written—many of which were with his partner in crime, Julia Michaels. And with Roan and Tranter both being big ol’ queers, there’s the shared experience of the two of them navigating that proudly, whilst also not wanting their queerness to be the sole thing which defines them and boxes them, but at the same time wanting it to be so unapologetically a part of what they do. And “Good Luck, Babe!” is a great intersection of that, as it’s so very clearly a song about a relationship between two people of the same gender which fell to shit. But the point of the song isn’t ‘I’M A LESBIAN’. And I think this balance and this framing is something which may have been refreshing between Roan and Tranter, as it’s probably rare for either of them to get to write a song with another queer person who gets it.

“Good Luck, Babe!” is really bloody good. That coulda just been the whole review.

It’s nice to have another pop act in the game who takes their artistry seriously, but isn’t afraid to be playful and fun in fear of not being taken seriously—because they know the quality of the music will speak for itself. And “Good Luck, Babe!” is definitely speaking. Roan’s debut album didn’t win me over completely, despite having some really good songs. But “Good Luck, Babe!” has me genuinely interested about what the follow-up will sound like and where Roan will go from here.

And let us rejoice that we’re getting pop girls with personality again.