Oh, 2024. What a year it’s been. Just when we thought that pop music was beginning to sound a little stale and warmed up, along came Chappell Roan to remind us of the power of a big, bold chorus and some really quite off-the-wall costume changes. Not since Lady Gaga has there been an artist who’s entered megastar status with this much organic rizz in the space of one summer—although you know that already. Which is why there’s been a big question mark hovering over 2025: is there going to be a follow-up to debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and, if so, what will it look, sound and feel like?
Obviously we don’t know a huge amount yet. The 26-year-old’s debut only came out towards the end of last year, and it took another half year for the record to properly gain momentum. But there have been a few clues dotted around for those who are really paying attention. Here, we’ve gathered everything we know about Roan’s as-yet-untitled second album thus far.
She’s working with producer Daniel Nigro again
You may not immediately recognise the name “Daniel Nigro” but you’ll certainly have come across the songs that he’s worked on. The New York producer and songwriter has his fingerprints on everything from Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion (2015) to Caroline Polachek’s Desire I Want to Turn Into You (2023) and both Olivia Rodrigo records Sour (2019) and Guts (2023). He also co-wrote and produced Roan’s debut, so you know the man knows how to help craft a slice of pop perfection. Both Roan and Nigro have confirmed that the pair are working together again for the second record which, thank God, because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, etc.
Five new tracks have been written, including ‘The Subway’
Back in September, Roan told Rolling Stone that she’d gotten down five or six songs already. “We have a country song. We have a dancey song. We have one that’s really ’80s, and we have one that’s acoustic, and we have one that’s really organic, live-band, ’70s vibe,” she said. “It’s super weird.” And then, earlier this month, in an interview with The New York Times, Nigro shared a similar update. He referenced one “fun, up-tempo country song” which includes “a fiddle. I’ll say that much. It’s a new version of Chappell.” Plus “a couple of ballads and a mid-tempo rock song”.
We also know that one such song will be ‘The Subway’, which Roan has been playing live more recently at festivals and on tour. It’s a break-up ballad with an earworm-y chorus, and fans are already starting to sing back the words. “I saw your green hair, beauty mark next to your mouth / There on the subway, I nearly had a breakdown,” she sings over syrupy piano and a slow-building drum-beat. “A few weeks later, somebody wore your perfume / It almost killed me, I had to leave the room.” It might not be the next single, though. Roan’s said she doesn’t know what the next single will be, although when she knows, she’ll know.
It isn’t going to be a super dark album, although there will be some grit
While we might expect the artist’s sophomore record to be all about the pitfalls and perils of fame (a subject she’s been vocal about), apparently that’s not necessarily the direction she’s been going in. So far, Nigro told The New York Times, “that hasn’t come up in any songs. We’re still writing from a really fun place. We’ll see what happens.”
That said, we can expect some “grit”: “[The next single] needs to have more grit, whether that means more pop grit or rock grit or just bite to the lyrics,” she told Rolling Stone. “Anything that I listen to—Joan Jett, Heart, Gaga—I want to feel like them. So I’ll just be inspired by that feeling and how I can capture it.”
This article was originally published on British Vogue.
