Tucker Pillsbury, or more commonly known as ROLE MODEL, released an album titled “Kansas Anymore” in 2024. It is publicly perceived to follow his personal experience going through the recent heartbreak of his now ex-girlfriend Emma Chamberlin.
Valentine’s Day is known as a day of relationships and hearts. However, instead of more love, ROLE MODEL released a deluxe version of his album that included 4 more songs that have the same amount of heartbreak as the original 13, making his heartbroken fans feel a little more included on this day of love.
The first new song that you will see while playing the album start to finish is titled “Old Recliners,” which recalls the nostalgia of the relationship whilst leaning into the new more complicated present.
With lyrics such as “I remember when the nights were long diving headfirst off the dock I wonder where the days have gone” which sits with the feeling and “Now you cry all night ‘till the morning in the arms of someone you settled for” detailing this new unliked reality.
Within the song, ROLE MODEL keeps coming back to the lyrics, “Thinking ‘bout you, you in the moment,” which highlights this reflection of the past relationship.
The following song is titled “Sally, When The Whine Runs Out” and it includes a narrative of meeting a girl named Sally in a dive bar. Having heard that Sally was a bit of a wild child, the narrator begs her not to break his heart like all the other girls in bars.
As we arrive at the bridge, we can see it might be less of the woman’s fault for breaking his heart and more of a repeated pattern of falling in love at first glance with people often. This song specifically sticks out to me for being an outlier within ROLE MODEL’s music for its fun and playful tune, yet he still sneaks in his heartbreaking lyricism.
“Some Protector” is the third new song we see on this album, and my favorite due to me being fond of his sadder music. It allows for ROLE MODEL to have some acceptance within this breakup.
Throughout the album we are following his process. To me and many other fans, this song and the one that follows are a conclusion to this era of breakup. He comes to accept the fact that the relationship has ended and the other party has moved on. However, we can still see that a part of this relationship will always be a part of him.
This final song, “The Longest Goodbye,” continues this era of acceptance, which encompasses the feeling of finally reaching a point of being content with the ending of a relationship. This song to me feels like a perfect close to a perfect album.
It feels like throughout the album we follow his emotions as if we are watching his grieving of this relationship first hand, and this final song of him coming to terms with what has happened leaves me and other listeners content with the album’s ending.
Overall, this album is a staple on my playlists and is background music to my life, as well as a good place to deeply analyze his lyrics and the story he is telling.
Stephenson can be reached at stephesa7890@uwec.edu.
