In recent summers, radio stations and social media pages have been bombarded with superficial, meaningless and overall lifeless music, all of it coming from a want to have the next ‘song of the summer.’

But this summer was different.

This summer, I was excited to turn on the radio. I was excited to hear the music. I was excited to listen to three artists in particular: Chappell Roan, Charli xcx and Sabrina Carpenter.

Although all three have been popular long before this summer, each of them saw a massive growth in audience, and after listening to them, it’s no secret why. When compared to artists who only focus on making the next ‘big hit,’ the talent and emotion of these artists shine through.

Ranging from the sapphic love ballads on Chappell Roan’s “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” the intense yet deeply personal electroclash club classics on Charli xcx’s “brat” and the languishing, romantically nihilistic anthems featured on Sabrina Carpenter’s “Short n’ Sweet,” each of these artists have created albums that are likely to stand the test of time.

“The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess”

It’s not often that an album sees major growth multiple months after release, but that’s exactly what happened with Chappell Roan’s debut studio album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.”

Released on Sept. 22, 2023, almost nine years after she began her career as an artist, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” makes you feel as if you’re reading excerpts taken directly from Roan’s diary. Each track on the album has a distinct purpose, guiding you through her experience of leaving her rural Missouri hometown for her dreams of living in Los Angeles.

Sharing sonic similarities to the 80s synth-pop and new wave genres, Roan’s debut album explains itself thematically with its title. The album shows her ‘rise’ through its danceable, more upbeat tracks such as “Hot to Go!” and “Femininomenon.” It also shows her ‘fall’ through its heartbreaking, piano-and-string-centric tracks like “Kaleidoscope,” “California” and “Casual” which detail her struggles as a queer woman in the music industry and day-to-day life, all while highlighting her gorgeous voice and wide vocal range.

What makes “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” so powerful is its honesty, raw emotion and the consequential journey it takes the listener through. Despite the fact that the album covers incredibly personal subject matters, it is able to successfully balance itself out without ever compromising on the individual songs quality.

“brat”

Even if you haven’t heard Charli xcx’s sixth studio album, “brat,” you’re sure to have seen its album’s low quality black Arial text on a lime-green background or to have been asked if you had a ‘brat summer.’

Released on June 7, “brat” fully embraces the aggressive, unforgiving 2000s English rave scene that started her career through tracks like “365” and “Mean girls.” At the same time – similar to “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” – it also serves as an outlet for xcx to be emotionally vulnerable with tracks such as “I might say something stupid” and “I think about it all the time.”

As an album, “brat” is reminiscent of the start of her career as an artist while also providing a glimpse into the future for xcx in terms of her career and personal life. The album shows a distinct evolution in both talent and popularity that hasn’t been seen since the release of “Sucker” almost ten years ago, with “brat” peaking at #3 on the US Billboard 200.

Although “brat” may seem mean and abrasive, the record is truly a showcase of love in all of its forms, albeit in a very unorthodox way. It’s about the love xcx has for partying with her friends. It’s about the love for what you do and the people you do those things with. But most importantly, “brat” is about love for yourself – regardless of how the world perceives you.

“Short n’ Sweet”

On Aug. 22, the night of the release of “Short n’ Sweet”, Sabrina Carpenter said to comedian and television host Jimmy Fallon in an interview that “[it] really does feel like a self-titled album to me because ‘Short n’ Sweet’ is sort of like ‘Sabrina’ in another language to me.”

There is truly no better way to describe the listening experience of Sabrina’s sixth studio album.

Following 2022’s “Emails I Can’t Send,” “Short n’ Sweet” comes at a time in Sabrina’s career as a musician where she seems to not only know what she wants to make, but has the creative control to make it – not being held back by the constraints of working for Disney after being signed under them for nearly seven years.

While much of the album’s sound is defined by the warm acoustic strings of tracks like “Dumb & Poetic” and “Sharpest Tool,” it still manages to blend in more electronic/synth-centric tracks such as the album’s singles, “Espresso” and “Please Please Please,” doing all this while being cheeky and straightforward lyrically.

When compared to other records, “Short n’ Sweet” admittedly isn’t that shockingly different; it doesn’t do anything too far out that would alienate potential listeners while still being inventive where it counts. “Short n’ Sweet” doesn’t try to be anything that it isn’t, yet it retains a distinct identity.

If the chart-topping performance of these three artists shows anything, it’s that musicians don’t always have to sacrifice the quality of their work for commercial success. After spending a long time building their individual careers, they are (finally) receiving the recognition they deserve.

And they have amazing music to show for it.