It is safe to say that when ROLE MODEL’s “Kansas Anymore” came out over the Summer of 2024, it brought the pop singer to a whole new audience. Praised for its emotion and vulnerability, the project was a welcome addition to a lacking male pop scene as of late. Here was Tucker Pillsbury laying out all the emotions of falling in love with and eventually breaking up with the woman he often considered the love of his life. This project left a clear impression on the music scene with many new fans eagerly awaiting its follow up. This hype only grew when Tucker posted a snippet of a new song called “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out” which instantly became a huge hit on social media. This culminated in the announcement of a deluxe album dubbed Kansas Anymore (The Longest Goodbye). If the original album was a diary of love lost, these four new songs were a track record of goodbyes, healing, and the bumps along the way.
The first new track was “Old Recliners”. This track is an encapsulation of both Summer and yearning for something past. The infectious chorus builds around the phrase “Thinking ‘bout you” as all the instrumentation grows into a mellow yet powerful beat. A stripped back bridge shows off Tucker’s talent to weave story elements and a plot into his songs without bogging them down. I am sure this track will be played from many car stereos with open windows in the coming months. After that, the prior-mentioned song, “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out”, ups the energy quite quickly. Painting pictures of messy nights splashed with large quantities of alcohol, Tucker delivers an infectious vibe and one of his strongest melodies across the entire project. He pleads with the Sally character, hoping that she will not leave when the partying and alcohol stops. The already viral bridge provides one of the strongest musical moments in recent pop memory. A stripped back affair, the bridge confesses Tucker’s feelings are growing for this woman who has a reputation of partying and is likely to leave him when the wine runs out. Much like how alcohol allows us to ignore the facts of life, Tucker sings this confessional cheerfully with some of the happiest instrumentation found on the project. With the introduction of an amazing lead guitar part, the song builds into a bumping finale before cutting out abruptly.
“Some Protector” feels like a deep cut off a recent The 1975 record in the best way possible. A simple instrumentation, the song reflects on a failed relationship and perhaps deeper feelings of failure in life. After all this reflection, Tucker accepts that he will always be some kind of protector to his old lover. He will never lose his feelings, always holding onto a piece of this person. This feels like a mature finale to his grief over the relationship. If “Some Protector” was a finale, “The Longest Goodbye” is the credits. Tucker himself has said this song has “Toy Story” vibes and honestly I cannot describe it any better. This track is built around a western guitar and muted trumpet that weave around each other and communicate just as much emotion as the lyrics. The spoken verse focusing on how his old love has found someone new displays a similar maturity featured in the last track. In the chorus, Tucker admits to at one point thinking he would marry this lover, before dismissing that as a feeling of the past. The song ends with the almost haunting line of “I don’t think I love you anymore/But I don’t think I’ll ever be so sure”. This raw and almost oversharing level of vulnerability is what makes this project so good. The listener sees every part of Tucker’s mind and even some of his delusions. It feels real in a way that pop often struggles to be. Overall, Tucker is a promising new face in the male pop scene. Between sold out headlining tours and opening for Gracie Abrams, it seems like it can only get better for the 27-year old. We all are eagerly awaiting the next chapter in his story.
- Thomas W. Hagan
