Albums
Casual
2023
Release Date: 2023
By Pitchfork
Reviewed November 2, 2022
Produced by Dan Nigro, the 24-year-old artist’s latest single dismantles the frustrating logic of a partner who insists on no commitment.
You could share a Costco membership, have matching tattoos, and trade spare house keys with someone, and they still might refuse to say you’re dating. On her latest single, “Casual,” 24-year-old singer Chappell Roan vents about a frustrating “situationship,” testing the logic of a partner who stubbornly insists on no attachment: “Knee deep in the passenger seat and you’re eating me out/Is it casual now?,” she asks bitterly, also listing long calls with her lover’s sibling and invitations to their family beach house as proof she’s way past being a fling. Produced by Dan Nigro, the collaborator of choice for talented and scorned young women, “Casual” builds with Roan’s resentment, and the chorus’ stacked vocals give it the flavor of a Chicks song. With biting candor, Roan describes an all-too-common reality: Pretending you’re a “chill girl” is better than not having the other person at all, until you really start to hate yourself for it.