Chapin City Blues

Four years ago, Tessa Violet dropped her not-so-debut album¹, Bad Ideas. Five years, if you consider the release of the album’s first single, Crush, and its music video. A lot happened between then and now – we had a global pandemic, which Tessa (albeit coincidental) released the music video for her “quarantine anthem” Bored, another single off Bad Ideas. 

The album was jam-packed with hits that it became obvious – Tessa Violet was a force to be reckoned with.

The YouTuber-turned-musician understood how to market herself and her music. She conquered TikTok with trends – some of them her own – to showcase songs from Bad Ideas, and built a following outside her Meekakitty days, while never brushing those fans aside. This is how she introduced the first single off her follow-up album. 

She did this with the second single, and the third,  the fourth, and the title song. The yellow-haired singer knew how to build momentum and deliver something worthwhile. 

On July 14th, she released MY GOD! which acts as her sophomore album. And true to my warnings on Instagram, I played the album ad nauseum the day of its release.

The album is a rollercoaster of emotions with lyrics celebrating self-aware, empowered women – “Hundred million streams, wrote in a day/Said I couldn’t do it, did it anyway/And now you’re tryna sign me/Labels wine and dine me/Keep your money, Satan/Get behind me…” – slowly melting into lyrics of heartbreak – “Was it ‘cause I was too needy? Was I too much?/You used to love me, we used to touch/Now, baby, you don’t even like me and I say it’s fine/And steel myself to the fact that I couldn’t change your mind…”- before it slaps you with the ultimate fuck-you song to a toxic relationship – “I’ve cried on bathroom floors/And tried to be mature/You say I’m insecure?/You’re twenty-eight with a teenager.”

Tessa Violet is telling a story through her music, starting with Bad Ideas and carrying on into MY GOD! and I look forward to seeing where she goes with it. Because you can’t rush art – and no one should – there is no telling when Tessa will release her next album. There’s one thing I can tell you though – it’s going to be fucking amazing.

¹ Before you correct me, I am 100% aware that Bad Ideas wasn’t her debut album. I had to purchase Maybe Trapped Mostly Troubled after it vanished from every streaming service available to me. According to Tessa herself, she removed the album (originally from Spotify) because it didn’t fit the narrative she was telling. And while, I adore the folky-pop debut, it pales in comparison when placed up against Bad Ideas and MY GOD!.