Every week, Consequence’s Songs of the Week column spotlights the best new tracks from the previous seven days and takes a look at notable releases. Find our new favorites and more on our Top Songs playlist, and for other great songs from emerging artists, you can listen to our New Sounds playlist. This week, Chappell Roan has returned with her first single of the year.
Something many people don’t know — but which Chappell Roan thankfully recognizes — is that it’s often perfectly reasonable to do something simply for a laugh. This was the impetus for the recent Grammy winner’s anthemic new single, “The Giver”: “I just think a lesbian country song is really funny,” she recently told Amazon Music. “So I wrote that.”
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In the same interview, Roan explained that many of the elements that define country music in her book are things that feel especially nostalgia-driven. The soaring fiddle that opens the track immediately sets the scene, recalling beloved cuts from artists like The Chicks, Sarah Evans, or Jo Dee Messina; it’s “the summertime, and the fiddle, and the banjo, and feeling like country queen,” Roan explained. The hook of “The Giver” certainly could have been leveraged for the sort of glossy pop tune that has become central to Roan’s musical brand, but she instead leaned in to the yee-haw of it all by rounding out the song with cheeky lines about mating calls and playful digs at “country boy quitters.” (Unfortunately, too many of us have known one or two.)
Roan debuted “The Giver” on SNL in November of 2024, and fans have been clamoring for the official release in the months since. Like much of Roan’s approach to music, there’s something extremely tongue-in-cheek about the tune; she was explicit in the fact that she wasn’t trying to capture the core listener demographic of the genre, nor was she offering an earnest reclamation in the vein of Beyoncé or even queer country artists like Angie K or Denitia. Instead, it’s a grand musical experiment, and the final product speaks for itself.
Roan’s public image has been characterized by perpetual transformation, after all. Her headline-making, record-breaking summer 2024 festival circuit left audiences desperate to see which character she might inhabit next, from a neon-toned wrestler to a smoking Statue of Liberty. Roan getting a little country with it isn’t that different from putting on another incredible wig and turning a costume into camp. She’s already proven her knack for slipping from persona to persona, and extending that creative element to her discography is a worthy endeavor.
Despite the genre pivot, Roan kept Daniel Nigro in the studio for production duties. The theatrical, completely over the top bridge, in which a choir of bass voices confirms that Roan sure can get the job done, primes the tune for line dancing or intricate choreography alike, depending on the direction she wants to take things. Another thing Nigro completely and fully understands is just how incredible Roan’s vocals are (think the viral bridge of “Good Luck, Babe!”), and even with full foot-stomping production on the track, her voice remains the star of the show.
Much like the standalone release of “Good Luck, Babe!,” the song has arrived free from an album cycle — although Roan has teased more music is already written. For now, though, throw on your boots and get ready to kick your heels up, because this toe-tapper is going to keep us busy well into the swell of summer.
— Mary Siroky
Associate Editor