Going Home With Role Model

Role Model recently debuted his sophomore album, Kansas Anymore, where he talks about going home, love and love lost. I have been listening to this album over and over again and each time I fall more in love with the writing and music. I want to be able to go through the album, talk and analyze – together. 

There is a Wizard of Oz theme that I especially appreciate. The title of the album beings in reference to Dorothy first coming to Oz. I like to think that the light blue accents are in reference to Dorothy’s iconic blue gingham dress. I think having these little nods to the Wizard of Oz, helps this overarching theme of coming home or trying to get home. This album outlines a beautiful story that I particularly have been obsessed with in the last few days. 

Kansas Anymore starts out with an upbeat attention grabber, “Writing’s On The Wall,” a saying that shows us the signs of bad things to come, and in Role Model’s case, it is being forgotten by someone close to him. In this song, he talks about his father lecturing him about a girl from his youth, a story that he ignores but knows in his heart that his dad is right. This theme of being forgotten is something that comes up repeatedly throughout Kansas Anymore, which we will explore later. “Writing’s On The Wall” is the start of our journey through a relationship and dealing with inner conflicts. 

The next two songs, “Look At That Woman” and “Scumbag,” continue this lighthearted sound that gave me a very nostalgic feeling. Role Model has talked about being inspired by and listening to songs that remind him of home, and I think he was extremely successful in bringing the listener back in time. “Look At That Woman” has a softness to it that I really appreciate, not only with the lyrics and the accompanying music video but sonically as well; it’s sweet in a way. There is a sense of admiration for this woman despite her breaking his heart. “Scumbag” is a music video that I really enjoyed and I think that it matches the song well. I also loved the story behind the music video. Role Model took to Instagram to say, “It has always been a dream of mine to shoot a video in my hometown, and it makes it even more special to have done it with my childhood friends, a camera and my mom’s toyota.” “Scumbag” takes us through the inner thoughts about not being good enough or worth the time that people put onto us, but still having the people that you care about show up and stand by you anyway. It feels like rejoicing in the company of the people you know have always got your back. 

Fans all seem to agree that Role Model can write the perfect heartbreak-love song, and he definitely shows off with “Oh, Gemini” and “Frances.” This is where the idea of being remembered comes back into play. This desire to be remembered by someone who was so important to him despite how he might have not shown up for her in the ways she needed, despite him pulling away. There is this sense of self-worth that comes from someone knowing and remembering him. “Frances,” I think, is a beautiful segway into the next two songs, thinking about her and their time together, bringing back that sense of nostalgia, wondering what went wrong and wishing it was different.

Then moving into “Superglue”  and “The Dinner.” “Superglue” tells us about a fling that gets complicated; it is something that he can’t take seriously, and it only results in people getting hurt. “The Dinner” is where we get more Wizard of Oz mentions, Role Model talks about clicking his heel and realizing that he is not in Kansas anymore. Throughout the entire song, Role Model begs to be taken home. The isolated vocals at the end of the track hit you right in the heart and make you long for home. 

Now, the final 6 songs of this album are what really bring it all together for me. Kicking off with “Deeply Still In Love,” Role Model picks us back up with loud drums and fun guitars. We get the mix of spoken word and falsetto that we’ve heard throughout the album. He talks about how he can’t help but still be in love with the girl who broke his heart (the girl we’ve been talking about this whole album. It is the ending of this song that I think allows it to be such a good start to the finale of the album). The song concludes with “I’m sorry, but I’m deeply still in love / In love with you,” and then it slows down we are in this moment of quiet with Role Model, the realization that she’s truly gone, and during the soft instrumental we get this French outro, “Tu sais / Je ne pense pas que tu l’es tué / Je pense qu’il est taré / Et que tu te sens puissante” which translates to, “You know / I don’t think you killed him / I think he is crazy / And you feel powerful.” What an interesting way to end a song and an especially interesting way to transition into “Slut Era Interlude.” This heartbreak was so impactful that she must feel powerful in the way she was able to drive him crazy.

 “Slut Era Interlude,” for me, is truly heartbreaking. It explores the idea of using another person to fill a void that someone else left. We see him slipping into these self-destructive behaviors. A desperate attempt to feel less lonely and trying to let go of the way she made him feel as a desperate attempt to not be alone. I think this is where we start to see the idea of home being personified; being homesick in a different way. 

There is truly nothing I love more than a Lizzy McAlpine feature. McAlpine has been on a feature streak, being seen on Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (Forever) and Niall Horan’s The Show: The Encore. And she does not disappoint here on “So Far Gone.” McAlpine serves as the faint reminder that there was another person involved in this relationship. Role Model is not the only one who is hurting. She takes on the second verse, “You’re just like your father / Have it your way or nothin’ at all / Maybe it would be different / If we could’ve called it what it was.” There is a lack of communication in this relationship and a series of unmet expectations. There is this longing for a better, different outcome. Role Model also compares McAlpine to his mother, saying that she’s worse. There is this layer of hurt and the urge to say hurtful things to make people feel the way you do; being compared to your mother or your father in an argument cuts, it is almost like a confirmation that every negative thing about you is seen by your partner. It also taps into the way family dynamics can affect people and how they are in relationships. 

“Slipfast” and “Compromise” feel like moving toward acceptance. “Slipfast” is a deep depression, the longing and desire to disappear. The lyrics, “Oh. my God, what I’d pay to just / Run away from this / Let me pay for it later / Slip fast, get carried away,” further emphasize this idea and the listener feels down in that darkness with him. “Slipfast” also has these little moments of recognizing self-destructive behaviors which allow us to come back into the story of “Compromise.” Role Model reminds his love interest not to compromise because, after everything that she has gone through, she deserves a happy ending. Our forgetting theme comes back later in this song when he says that he can’t forget her and he is trying to show her how he can treat her correctly.

Kansas Anymore ends on a bittersweet hopeful note with “Something, Somehow, Someday.” Role Model is talking about two different types of people: a man who is a “screw-up” in all senses of the term and a woman who is everything and more. “He’s a whiskey-drinking, barely thinking, got no destination / She’s the plane ride home.” This song, for me, truly showcases how home is more than just a physical place. And how people can always find their way back to each other. It shows how personalities can always find their way back to one another. Role Model is holding out hope and also giving hope to the listener (a mantra that we can all repeat) that somehow, someday, they will be something in this lifetime or the next. 

Photo Credits: Daniel Prakopcyk