Kansas Anymore Role Model: Album Review
The artist’s latest album leaves much to be desired, no pun intended
After months of teasing snippets on social media and promoting under the social media moniker @saintlaurentcowboy, ROLE MODEL, or Tucker Pillsbury, released his sophomore album Kansas Anymore. Evidenced by lyrics, song names, and promotional choices, the album unequivocally serves as his breakup album from social media savant Emma Chamberlain. The musician has never shied away from baring his true self on his lyrics, but this album, and everything that came with it, perhaps took it just a step too far.
From the beginning, Pillsbury has sung about struggles with mental health, self esteem, and relationships. In his older music, Pillsbury often lyrically conveyed a dirtbag image, someone who couldn’t, and wouldn’t, commit, someone who hated the plastic personas prevalent in Los Angeles, and someone who was intent on never changing. He seemed to be only happy being miserable. However, in 2020, that all changed. Once he called Chamberlain his girlfriend, the tone of his songs turned cheerful, happy, and terribly, horribly, head over heels in love.
While in his relationship with Chamberlain, he released tender songs like “blind” and “forever&more”, gushing about her perfection, her individuality, and his intent on staying with her for life. He seemed to even be reaching religion on “if Jesus saves, she’s my type”, the music video featuring him dancing around a church with an actress bearing her likeness. Chamberlain had kept previous relationship with now former YouTuber Ethan Dolan under wraps, and it seemed the couple was intent on keeping it to nothing but “soft launches”, the term for subtly revealing your relationship online. That is, until a Valentine’s Day GQ article had their love put on display for anyone who cared to know-perhaps a few of her 15 million Instagram followers. As they tripped over one another trying to shower the other with compliments and adoration, they explained that their initial show not tell social media presence was a mutual choice. Pillsbury had claimed that, put succinctly, he hadn’t wanted fans to be at the show for his girlfriend. He wanted them there for him. They continued to be more subtle until the relationship ended.
That may have been true while they were together, it seems now that their relationship has ended, he’s using it to attention grab to the near point of exploitation. The leading single “Oh, Gemini”, a reference to her birth month, perhaps wasn’t too obvious. Track 5 being her middle name perhaps was. It didn’t stop there. On May 22, Chamberlain’s birthday, a Role Model merch email was sent out with the subject line “geminis scare me”. He didn’t want her fans at his show to see her, but he does want them knowing exactly how he feels.
As he writhes in his misery over the only girl to ever change his view on love, he continues to tear apart everything to a point of pretentiousness and almost concern. On the album, he lambasts Los Angeles on “The Dinner”, continuing to hold the ever present east coast superiority complex. “Slut Era Interlude” confirms and cements into words every woman’s worst fear in bed: being a rebound, being used as nothing but a placeholder for someone else, with horrific, unnecessary detail. “I'm not tryna be your man, just don't want to sleep alone/Fuck your first name, fuck your birthday/Know you're only here to get me through this heartbreak”.
But maybe he knows. After all, falsely painted onto his album posters around Los Angeles is the word “Scumbag”, the title of the album’s third track. He asks the listener “Oh, I'm a scumbag, I'm a scumbag, still a scumbag (Yeah, you stand by me)/Why you stand by me?” Why do we? TikTok clip lyrics of him admiring the lover he once had seem to do enough to convince us of his good character no matter how many times his other words prove otherwise. We can fix him, a universal task, one listeners seem to think is worthy for a messy haired, tattooed musician with a toothy grin.
One has to wonder what the calculated Chamberlain thinks of this. Probably not much, as she was recently photographed at the Olympics with her father and rumored boyfriend musician Peter McPoland, yet another handsome, tattooed artist. Pillsbury seems to have his pick of the litter, but the one he wants the most wants nothing to do with him, and perhaps that’s punishment enough.
All in all, with a wide range of bitching, moaning, and pure heartbreak, Kansas Anymore seems less like an album and more like a call for help. Once the interlude ends, perhaps Pillsbury will craft more love songs worthy of a listen.
so glad someone feels the same,, i listened once and when my friends ask what i thought i say “they all sound like songs that would be played at the end of a pixar movie”