Chappell Roan worked with Dan Nigro on the song, writing sections on different days and piecing them together. In an interview with Earmilk, she stated "I've been dreaming of releasing a song like this my whole career. It took years to build up the confidence to even sing in that style." Roan added, "I always try to push myself and how I write pop music. I want to see if I can get away with being as ridiculous as I possibly can. I wanted a dance song. Something people could do drag to. A Queer anthem that had a sad undertone of what really happened to me, but with a beat."[1]
Speaking with Cherwell, Roan described the song as "slumber party pop". When asked about the song's meaning, Roan said, "It's about the confusion I have in relation to my sexual relationships with men. Something is not connecting. I feel like every man I've been with is never satisfying. With a woman, it's easy and different and wonderful. It's a phenomenon. It's a queer song – hidden in there...It's a phenomenon that this magical, perfect scenario somewhere out there exists, and it's probably a woman in my case."[2]
Composition
The song opens with production consisting of strings[3][4] and piano,[5] as Chappell Roan reflects on an ex-partner who could not satisfy her.[5][4][6] Before each chorus, she gradually increases the melodrama in tone and demands for a song to be played "with a fucking beat".[3][5][4][7] During the chorus, the sound of a dirt bike revving is used in the background,[1] before synthesizers are played.[3] In the spoken-word bridge, Roan encourages women in a similar situation as her ("Ladies, you know what I mean, and you know what you need!").[3][6]
Critical reception
Emily Treadgold of Earmilk remarked "the song somehow goes in a million different ways but fits together so well" and "It's all so fun and loud but so intricate."[1] Reviewing The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess for AllMusic, Neil Z. Yeung wrote the song "perfectly captures the album's ethos as it transforms from a sweet, string-laden ballad into a pulse-pounding empowerment anthem punctuated by a mid-song pep talk and hilariously escalating adlibs".[3] Hannah Mylrea of NME commented the song as having a "serious earworm of a chorus."[5] Olivia Horn of Pitchfork called it "a Frankenstein's monster that splices stacked vocals à la Lorde, ad libs à la Kesha, a synth that sounds like a groan tube, and the inane lyric 'Get it hot like Papa John!'—perhaps the pizza franchise's biggest pop crossover moment since they plastered Taylor Swift's face on their boxes."[8]
