"HOT TO GO!" should be annoying. On first listen, it kind of is — it's got that grating, self-aware hook (or, in this case, series of hooks) that could sound like KIDZ BOP in the wrong hands. Under the care of Chappell Roan's wild-eyed pop fanaticism however, that striving energy becomes something transcendent.
All those hyper-saturated, cheerleader hooks pile atop one another like a collapsing human pyramid, a flurry of skirts and flushed cheeks and pom poms and glitter. It's the kind of so-dumb-its-genius singalong pop lyric — "H-O-T-T-O-G-O / You can take me hot to go!" — that you can't believe hasn't been done before, sung with in-the-red commitment by a songwriter with a clear understanding that the joy of pop music is in its full-blooded surrender to ecstasy and excess.
Roan has tried on a series of different hats in the 10(!) singles she's released in the lead-up to her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess; she embodies most pretty successfully, but "HOT TO GO!" feels like her lightning strike moment. She seems to have the style and songcraft and smarts to pull off just about anything — with "HOT TO GO!" she's included the near-perfect pop song to the list.
(Amusement/Island)All those hyper-saturated, cheerleader hooks pile atop one another like a collapsing human pyramid, a flurry of skirts and flushed cheeks and pom poms and glitter. It's the kind of so-dumb-its-genius singalong pop lyric — "H-O-T-T-O-G-O / You can take me hot to go!" — that you can't believe hasn't been done before, sung with in-the-red commitment by a songwriter with a clear understanding that the joy of pop music is in its full-blooded surrender to ecstasy and excess.
Roan has tried on a series of different hats in the 10(!) singles she's released in the lead-up to her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess; she embodies most pretty successfully, but "HOT TO GO!" feels like her lightning strike moment. She seems to have the style and songcraft and smarts to pull off just about anything — with "HOT TO GO!" she's included the near-perfect pop song to the list.