feature image photo by CBS Photo Archive / Contributor via Getty Images
Happy ChappRapp Friday AKA the blessed first day of August 2025 where we have been gifted new music from both Chappell Roan and Reneé Rapp. To have a cavalcade of lesbian pop stars be so mainstream and prolific that we get two HUGE release days at once?! This particular Managing Editor of a queer pop culture website is exhausted, but hey, these are good problems to have!
I usually have to let an album wash over me several times before I can effectively write about it, and while I’ve managed to listen to Reneé Rapp’s Bite Me twice before 9 a.m. (its 12 tracks clock in at just over half an hour, which is my ideal length for designating an album a Driving Album), I’m not quite ready to apply a serious critical lens to its tracks. So instead, I thought we’d do something fun and select the most chaotic lyrics from every song. Because this is an album that harnesses the power of queer chaos!
1. Leave Me Alone
“I took my sex life with me, now the show ain’t fucking.”
I’ve already written about this delicious, bitey track. I’ve gotta go with the Sex Lives of College Girls shade for most chaotic lyric. There’s a long queer history of gay people being petty in lyrical form, and Rapp is tapping into that.
2. Mad
“I wanna get mad at you, right back at you
But it’s kinda hot”
I love how Rapp leans into mess in her lyrics. Here we have a song about a toxic (but not altogether fucked up) relationship. The “it’s kinda hot” confession about a girlfriend who keeps getting mad is peak dyke drama. (It was hard to choose between this and the Marlboro red / finger in mouth run.)
3. Why Is She Still Here?
“No, I didn’t say shit when you introduced me as your friend
And yes, that’s what it is, but don’t you do that shit again
It’s funny cuz it didn’t feel like friends on the kitchen floor, no”
God I love the instrumentals on this one. This is musically one of my favorite tracks on the album. And whewwww the lyrics! We’ve got here what seems to be a situationship with a woman who still has a girlfriend, no? That kitchen floor line got me good.
You know, I’ve noticed a lot of queer pop stars leaning into the idea of “queer chaos” or “dyke drama” (think: Fletcher, JoJo, Zolita) but sometimes it comes off as such a put-on act and inauthentic, edginess for the sake of edginess. Rapp demonstrates on Bite Me that queer chaos is best served from a place of authenticity and sincerity rather than snark. The queer chaos Rapp puts on display in Bite Me still feels like it’s telling a real story and comprising complex emotions. “Why Is She Still Here?” is a great example. It’s chaotic for sure, but it isn’t trying too hard. It’s just interested in the messiness and contradictions of human behavior. She’s confessional rather than performative. It yields songs that are messy without being cringe.
4. Sometimes
“And God, I know this is predictable
But I need you more than just physical”
Get in losers, we’re yearning.
Not just solely because of track placement, I do think of this track as a direct sequel to “Why Is She Still Here?” I interpret it as about the same relationship but further along the timeline. It just sounds like the place where a lot of relationships that begin as affairs end up in.
5. Kiss It Kiss It
“I think wе almost made a baby
I mean, we can’t, but we came so close”
🚨 CUNNILINGUS TRACK! 🚨 I’m a big fan of the subgenre I like to call pussy eating pop songs. This is a fun one. And I love this baby-making line.
6. Good Girl
“Showed me your lip tattoo a little
Closer, so I can just get a little”
Lip tattoos are up there with tongue rings in terms of dykiest body mods.
7. I Can’t Have You Around Me Anymore
“Somehow, we always end up naked
Nothing ever happens, but it still feels real good”
Wow, this album really has ever flavor of queer chaos. Here we have what seems like the close friendship that may cross some lines? It was hard not to just pick the titular line as the gayest lyric!
8. Shy
“I wanna mark it up like X and O
‘Cause, baby, I’ll do things your exes won’t
Come on and cross my heart and hope to die
I’m thinkin’ I’ll try yours and you’ll try mine”
The “pullin’ my hair” and “ruin my life” of the chorus are undoubtedly very chaotically gay sentiments too, but I gotta go with the cheer breakdown in the bridge. Something about the nostalgia of “cross my heart and hope to die” and doing things your exes won’t makes this bridge extra queer (all bridges are queer).
9. At Least I’m Hot
“If I get a text from another ex, I swear I’m gonna end up behind bars”
Is that Towa Bird’s voice coming in on “How ya doin Nay?” ?! It sounds like her! I love the idea of featuring your girlfriend on a track where you’re also singing messy ass lyrics like the above.
10. I Think I Like You Better When You’re Gone
“I know that I’m supposed to miss you and wish that you were here
But the more I drink, the more I think, you might just disappear”
I also just want to note that singing about time zones is gay.
11. That’s So Funny
“You got a better shot with God than you do with me”
Well if that first line of the song is meant to be a Harry Potter reference, I don’t love that. (Beyond everything else, it’s just kind of a lazy play on words.)
The straightforward pettiness of this song though is top tier, as represented by the above lyric. And Rapp’s vocals on “Took my love, twisted it to a fuck you” ? Woweeeeee.
12. You’d Like That Wouldn’t You
“I bet you’d like that, wouldn’t you?
If I cut my heart out of my chest
And bled out in my living room
Yeah, you’re sick and you’d like that”
Tits spilling out of cherry tops in the OPENING LINE? I love this song. Whole thing is chaotic in the best way.
What’s your favorite track from the new album?! Let’s discuss.
