hello from a non-Gemini moon!

Renee Rapp is my favorite artist I became a super fan of in 2023. She’s been blowing up online since 2018 and I was lucky enough to discover her a couple of months after the release of her debut EP Everything to Everyone (2022). She started in the Broadway world and has since erupted on more mainstream parts of the internet. From the theatre kids to those who found her through TikTok to the people wanting to see the “falsely advertised” Mean Girls: The Musical, Renee Rapp is someone the music, film, and theater industries can all expect to see a lot from this year.

            Renee Rapp’s debut album, Snow Angel, is not as monothematic (in other words, not a concept album) as other albums I’ve reviewed. Snow Angel is very much what a debut album is – an introduction to an artist that immerses the listener in multiple aspects of their life. Snow Angel covers intense heartbreak, figuring out your sexuality, navigating harsh realizations as you age, plus a touch on addiction. All these things are somewhat interrelated, but they remain unique to Rapp and aren’t all things you’d list if told to name three things you’re almost guaranteed to hear on an album.

            The name Snow Angel itself embraces youth and debuting. Snow angels are youthful wholesome ways to make the best of the cold. In this case, perhaps the title has a double meaning. Keep on reading to find out. 

On the cover, Rapp stares blankly into the distance, in front of a blue backdrop with her hair sticking up as if she’s been electrocuted – a feeling I can certainly sense in the album. Without further ado, let’s talk about the songs!

Talk Too Much: This was one of the first songs Rapp wrote for this record. She explains that she was working with a new producer, Alexander 23, and that the song came from wanting to experiment.

            “Talk Too Much” is about the anxiety of committing to a relationship. Rapp self-sabotages and looks everywhere for signs to continue doing so – “I’m taking everything I see as a sign and I know it’s crazy, but what if it’s right?”. Yet, she still hopes it will work out – “if I see a blue car today, we’ll probably have to break up/so I close my eyes when I drive”. The song ends with an outro of her rambling “Okay, having said all that, do you still wanna be with me?/cause, like, I wanna be with you/like, like, maybe even forever/holy sh**, okay, maybe not, like, forever…”, a common theme throughout the album. Some of the best parts of Snow Angel are its outros.

            Sonically, Rapp explains this track saying that the beat is something producers either love or hate. I wasn’t a big fan myself until I really listened to the instrumentals on the verse. The guitar in the background adds a comforting feel, as someone raised on country music.

As a very talkative and anxious person, I appreciate this song. The self-sabotage themes prevail throughout the album.

My favorite line: “Woke up and you looked so cute, don’t think I could love you more/so what the hell does it all mean?” – this is so cute. The uncertainty at the end is the cherry on top.

I Hate Boston: This is a heart-wrenching piano ballad about misidentifying the hatred you feel for someone who showed you around a new city as hatred for the city itself.  “I Hate Boston” was an initial favorite of mine, but I also had a hard time listening to it at first because of how sad it made me. It feels like a journey back to a fever-dream era of your life that was formative but is now distant enough that it’s hard for you to believe it ever really happened. The chords are so impeccably well-chosen that it burns.

The chorus features a gorgeous falsetto. The end of the chorus, “it’s not (Boston)’s fault, just a casualty/and casual’s the way you chose to leave” is the first of many clever wordplay lines throughout the song.

            As Rapp has made a point to say, this song is not meant to trash Boston. I would hope so, considering that it’s a city I’m looking at colleges in. But if you hate a city, it might as well be thanks to one of your idols, right?

            My favorite lyric: “You must be exhausted; don’t you miss me?” – this reminds me of “I just can’t imagine how you could be so okay now that I’m gone” from Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” (2021), a line that struck me immediately when I first heard it.

A sign was put up in Boston to promote the album, triggering Boston.com to ask, “What’s the deal with that ‘I Hate Boston’ sign in the North End?”

Poison Poison: Another favorite! “Poison Poison” is especially popular among fans for two reasons. The first reason was upon its release, because of the iconic line, “Yes, I am a feminist, but b***h, you’re making it so hard for me to always be supporting all women”. Rapp speaks on the slightly controversial line explaining to Apple Music, "(No woman wants) to be a girl that takes down another girl. I wanted to write a song about (this friendship of mine that ended) because I cared about this person so much and we were such good friends and I felt really betrayed." Fans felt that the line was extremely relatable. The second time it blew up was in a video from her concert, in which she had her audience sing the lyrics to the infamous outro, featuring lyrics like, “I think you should shut the f*** up and die”. Rapp’s bluntness is a key characteristic of both her lyricism and how she portrays herself online. Something is extremely satisfying about singing, “f*** you, you dumb b****/f*** you, f*** you, f*** you” every time this song comes on.

            Lastly, I must note the amazing run on “You’re the worst” at around 2:26. Her vocal control is insane.

            My favorite lyric: “You got a little bit ahead of me, but unlucky for you, I am that b****”: while I don’t know if using the phrase “that b****” was intended to refer to the disgusting line in Kanye West’s infamous “Famous”, I wonder if Rapp was somehow channeling that energy with this line. The point of saying this phrase in West’s 2016 song was to call a woman ungrateful and backstabbing (an ironic thing to say considering how the internet later learned that West was undeniably the one in the wrong), and Rapp could be using that connotation ironically here. Like how Taylor Swift (the subject of the line in West’s song) took control of snakes, another thing West and his then-wife attempted to use to villainize her, Rapp glamorizes the phrase, “that b****”. You can’t help but love it.

Gemini Moon: Surprise! Renee Rapp is a Pisces moon. This song is about insecurities of not being a good partner. Rapp explains that the song is called “Gemini Moon” because Gemini is said to be the least reliable star sign. She says (paraphrased) to Apple Music that big things always seem to happen to her when there’s a full Gemini moon.

She briefly touches on her sexuality with the line, “always the problem kid, I could never pick a side”. In an interview with Call Her Daddy from early 2023, she says she struggled with her sexuality when she first identified as bisexual because she felt pressure to choose between men and women. She explains further in this interview that she was often called dramatic as a child. That lyric seems to hit on both of those topics at once, as she starts the chorus with “I bet you’re sick of it/believe me, so am I”, and finishes with “I could blame the Gemini Moon/but really, I should just be better to you”.

This song also feels like a reference to her Everything to Everyone (2022) track, “Moon”.

My favorite lyric: “You’re so f***ing perfect, how come I’m not feeling more?” – a feeling that I feel like I never hear artists talk about.

Snow Angel: This is the most complex song on the album. As you think about the song, snow alludes not so much to winter as to drug use. Rapp explains the song on Instagram saying that it was about a story she was scared to tell for a long time. The chorus goes,

            I’ll make it through the winter if it kills me

            I can make it faster if I hurry

            I’ll angel in the snow until I’m worthy

            But if it kills me, I tried

She believes she can get through a dangerous and traumatic situation but is heavily struggling. At best, she can make a snow angel.

An annotation on Genius sums up inspiration she’s shared about the song, "In a January 2023 interview, (Rapp) discussed her high school drug and alcohol abuse, and also discussed her experience with an eating disorder. Cocaine is an appetite suppressant, and many anorexic individuals abuse the drug so that they physically don't get hungry and can stay skinnier."

            The best part of the song is the bridge, where Rapp explains moving on and how damaging it is no matter the benefits. Her heart was broken, and she wishes she handled it differently (“I wish I went a different way, but if I went back, I would do the same”). Still, she learned a lot.

Apologies to my family for hearing me sing this bridge in my basement studio whenever I’m practicing belting. It’s just too good.

           My favorite lyric: “I blame him cause it’s easier, but I still look for him in her” – this perfectly captures the awful feeling of missing someone horrible and not knowing what to do with yourself.

The YouTube thumbnail of the "Snow Angel" music video.

So What Now: Hands down my favorite. Instrumentally, “So What Now” distinctly reminds me of late 2010s pop music – one of my favorite musical eras. The song itself is a little hilarious and executes a “situationship” story perfectly. In the first verse, she says, “What gives you the right to come back to the city that I live in? Yeah, I know that you grew up here, and I know that your family’s here”. It explains the whole “it’s the principle of the action I’m upset about, not the action itself” thing quite well (“I found out from a friend of a friend that you’re here again?”).

The song builds so well. Electric guitar strums appear in the first chorus, and siren-like sounds enter in the second one. It’s addicting. The outro itself is also great. My favorite line of the whole song is the outro line, “You’re so small I could flick you across the room” (honorary mention to "you’re a dumb, crusty **s bitch, but I think I love you”). It’s such an easy song to dance to in your bedroom and captures future nostalgia perfectly.

The Wedding Song: Renee Rapp is both barely and completely keeping us guessing. This song displays thorough disappointment in a relationship not working out. In the verses, Rapp talks about a love song she wrote about a since-failed relationship. She says how much she and others loved the song and how much its subject would’ve loved it. In the choruses, she talks about how it once was. It stings, with lines like (my personal favorite), “I know there’s heaven, but we must be higher”. She continues the chorus with lines about love, but tops it off with, “…I think it went something like that” to remind herself that the romance is nothing but a song now. By the bridge, she’s fed up, “the words were so perfect, the world should’ve heard it and sang every line out loud”. In the final chorus, Rapp hits impossibly high notes. Watching concert videos where she sings them and adds extras is an out-of-body experience. By the time the song is over, I’ve ascended for perhaps the eighth time in fifteen minutes. I wish I wrote this song.

Pretty Girls: Rapp tells Apple Music, "Ever since I became more publicly out, so many straight girls are like, 'I couldn't be with a girl, but (if I was, I would be with you)... that sucks any way you slice it. But in a really sick and twisted way, it's kind of flattering." She describes it as “the universal gay-girl experience”.

“Pretty Girls” starts with calm and touching instrumentals and sensual lyrics, like, “You say that I’m your favorite with your hand between my thighs”. It picks up in the chorus, creating an excellent dance beat. In the second verse, she’s falling for the situation, “I like your straight jacket, but it feels like it’s a little tight” – a clever allusion to straitjackets used in mental asylums to restrain patients. Gorgeous background vocals sweep in as the song progresses, and she even adds an extra harmony in live performances. The chorus is very catchy and feels the way nightlife feels. Some of my favorite memories with this album are blasting and dancing to this song in my kitchen.

My favorite lyric: “You think that I’ll be flattered/it’s pathetic cause you’re right”

The YouTube thumbnail for the "Pretty Girls" music video.

Tummy Hurts: Full of wordplay, “Tummy Hurts” is an iconic and sassy R&B-inspired song, even having a remix with rising R&B star Coco Jones on Snow Angel (Deluxe).

The song feels like the ending of a more mature relationship – “I heard you, I get it, you’re broke/but oh, you always had money to smoke”, while also having the slightly childish line, “now my tummy hurts”. It’s packed with clever lines like, “Maybe I should try religion, cause Jesus, you’re hard to rely on”, “I just want some recognition for having good tits and a big heart” and “I guess boys, they come and they go”. The song devolves into solemn disbelief – she isn’t really surprised that the relationship ended, but she’s a little sad for her ex’s future children.

            The live version of this song is impeccable. I don’t have much to elaborate with on that note but do yourself a favor and look up “Renee Rapp Tummy Hurts live”. The arrangements are addicting.

            My favorite lyric: “I just want some recognition for having good tits and a big heart” – solely because my mom laughs every time that line plays.

I Wish: Renee Rapp reflects in “I Wish” on growing up and understanding death and how that perception changes as she loses more people, both through heartbreak and actual death. She misses being a child because she wants that youthful perception of the world back. Acoustic and slightly folk-inspired, “I Wish” sounds like how I’d imagine driving through the Scottish countryside would feel.

One of the most heart-wrenching parts of the song is the verse about her dad suffering the loss of his dad, “How could the person who taught me to breathe take their last breath not in front of me?” That’s my favorite line in the song. In the bridge, she bargains – a stage of grief. She doesn’t want people to leave her life, because she wants to keep that already tainted lens for a little longer before it changes even more.

Willow: This is one of the most heartwarming songs on the record. It's a letter to Rapp's younger self, who she refers to as “Willow”. She spends the song explaining that it’s ok to be struggling and that life will go on. She sings in the chorus alongside a gorgeous harmony, “Willow, don’t cry.” Rapp said in a recent interview that she felt very "weird and lonely" as a teen, which sums up these emotions.

“Willow” presents as a lullaby. Rapp has a lot of sympathy for her younger self, and says, “I’ll cry for you”. She wishes she could take the pain away. With more relaxed yet less acoustic production than other songs on the album, it’s cozy, comforting, and heartwarming.

            My favorite lyric: “Only so much you can explain over the phone” – this speaks to so many emotions. You can communicate how you feel all you want, but don’t you ever wish you could tell your younger self that it’s okay to not always know exactly how you feel?

23: Like another album I did a small review on last year, Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS, Snow Angel ends with its singer turning a new age. “23” is essentially about having a panic attack before your birthday, and feeling like you wasted your time, “my wish is that I cared less”. Her exes use her birthday to slide back into her life, plus, she doesn’t know how to manage her anxiety, and she doesn’t feel like the day is hers anymore. This song, especially in terms of production, is a great finale to an album full of incredible instruments. I could listen to this album’s instrumentals on loop and not get bored. Each time I listen to it, I hear even more that I love.

At the end of “23”, Rapp goes another year in advance, explaining how she wants to feel turning 24, ending the album on a slightly optimistic futuristic note.

My favorite lyric: “I hope that I can care less, but I’m afraid to care less” – such a good way to put that feeling into words.

Rapp pictured on her Instagram with Coco Jones, who she collaborated with for a remix of "Tummy Hurts".

Renee Rapp has an incredible situation set up for herself, with her role as Regina George in Mean Girls: The Musical putting her all over the internet. The soundtrack, featuring three songs with Rapp singing, plus a brand new original song from her, "Not My Fault (with Megan Thee Stallion)", is available on all streaming services. I have no doubt that she will take great advantage of this publicity, and everyone reading this should listen to Snow Angel right now and jump on the bandwagon before Rapp gets so big that being there early is a big achievement. You also have something to look forward to – Rapp has already begun teasing a second album! It is said to be released sometime this year.

Snow Angel and Snow Angel (Deluxe) are available now on all streaming platforms.