Princess Chelsea for TimeOut. Supplied by Lil Chief Records. Photo credit: Coco Campbell NZH 02Aug18 - Photo / Coco Campbell
The twisted fairytale world that Princess Chelsea conjures up is a gloriously disturbing place. As sweet as the cursed apple Snow White bites into and as deceptive as the big bad wolf pretending to be dear old grandma, everything here is most assuredly not as it seems.
It'd be wrong
to suggest her humorously biting lyrics steal the show, the musicianship throughout is top-notch, but she does do a fantastic line in gallows humour.
On the gentle nursery rhyme Good Enough she sings about settling rather than searching for a soulmate, ("She thought he was good enough, he thought she wanted him, that was good enough for him"), on the chamber pop of Growing Older she tackles ageing gracefully, ("Just because you're not as pretty, doesn't mean you're not happy") and on the chirpy, skittering All I Need to Do she wrestles with the realisation she's no Bruce Springsteen, ("Feeling so inspired to write a song that's not as good").
While she may not be The Boss, on the sentiment of the blue-collar Respect the Labourers, adorned with its pulsing, rocking bass and a blaring sax solo, she gets pretty close.
While her aesthetic remains firmly in place throughout, the sonic colours and variety keep things interesting and work to give the album its lush widescreen flavour. Taking cues from charts of days long gone, the album almost gives you a tour of popular music from the last few decades.
