Listen
For the first time this summer the number one album in the country is… good. It seems remarkable that The Rise and Fall of A Midwest Princess should find itself crowned thus ten months after its initial release date. But then, for Kayleigh Amstutz of Willard, Missouri, things have not been straightforward. Signed aged 17 and subsequently dropped, lickety split, by Atlantic Records, Roan retreated home and has been releasing and reinventing ever since until Princess hit. The result is therefore at once a debut and a comeback – a project borne of frustration and bided time which evaporates into dazzling pop. It’s an absurdly fun, bombastically camp revue – a Kick Inside of the smalltown sapphic. Chappell’s indomitable touring persona and authentic charisma have undoubtedly catalysed this late bloom. Whatever the reason, Midwest Princess is an unexplained, yet very welcome, femininomenon.
