Forget a Reneé Rapp summer, it’s a Reneé Rapp year, decade, and life. We’ve been counting down the days until BITE ME released longer than Reneé’s even had the album officially announced. And just like we predicted, it was more than worth the wait. We already knew we were dealing with an icon-tier album from the singles. ‘Leave Me Alone’ had us on our knees, ‘MAD’ let us beat a dead horse with both our friends and our therapist, and ‘Why Is She Still Here?’ immediately became our go-to song to belt out in the shower.
BITE ME is the exact proclamation of self-love, worth, and acceptance that Reneé Rapp promised us it would be. There’s no denying the absolute magic that is her debut album, Snow Angel. But BITE ME shines in a different light all of its own. Without the vulnerability and raw emotion Reneé Rapp shared on Snow Angel, it’s evident we’d never get to shine in the light that is BITE ME. Throughout the album, it feels like you’re in the studio with Reneé. You can just imagine her smile as she perfected each track. It’s like a tiny piece of her resides in every song in a way that makes them like collectable Reneé Rapp tokens. And when you really listen to each song, you get to collect them all.
“We Could’ve Been Cute And We Could’ve Been Stupid”
It’s safe to say that BITE ME is a no-skip album. That’s evident three songs in when you realize this album is everything you already love about Reneé Rapp and more. BITE ME is laid out so that the thread of emotion and narrative behind it remains intact, despite any sonic changes. The first, and perfect, example of this is the first three tracks. You start with ‘Leave Me Alone’, an in-your-face pop-rock anthem about being over it. Into ‘Mad’, which carries over similar pop-rock influences but brings more R&B into the mix to emphasize the insane vocals she serves on the track. ‘Why Is She Still Here?’ leans all the way into those R&B elements while soulfully blending with other genres, such as funk, soul, and hip-hop.
“I Wasn’t Planning On Dancing Until The Sun Came Up”
A track we need to discuss is ‘Good Girl.’ It begins with hypnotizing synths that evoke memories of our favorite 80s pop icons. It’s so good we had to listen to it a few times because we weren’t ready to move on after the first listen. And lyrically speaking, the song truly reflects the Reneé we all love from her burner account and TikToks. ‘At Least I’m Hot’ is another perfect example of a song off BITE ME that’s so Reneé Rapp it hurts.
“If I can’t be happy, then at least I’m hot.”
Not only have truer words never been spoken, but we’re pretty sure that’s in the Bible somewhere.
We Hope You Packed Tissues
It wouldn’t be a Reneé Rapp album, though, if she didn’t rip our throats out at some point. And it happens for the first time on track four with ‘Sometimes.’ If you’ve ever put yourself in rooms you’d usually never enter because someone you liked was in them, asked for seats at tables you knew would never truly have a seat for you because someone you liked was sitting at the table, and never got the validation from them you needed to even know if it was truly worth fighting for: this is the song for you!
‘That’s So Funny’
And then there’s ‘That’s So Funny,’ which felt like a personal attack on us; we can’t lie. We’ve all dealt with someone in our lifetime who we trusted so deeply that they betrayed us even deeper. And then, sometimes, you hear those people’s recollections of events, and you’re even more stunned than when they did the horrible thing to begin with. Reneé puts it perfectly when she said:
“That’s so funny, baby, that you would tell it like that. You paint yourself rather lovely, baby, don’t you? Yeah, that’s so funny, baby, that you could play it all back and skip every part where I loved you.”
We could talk about BITE ME for another three hundred paragraphs, but we have streaming to do and lyrics to scream in our shower. What are your personal highlights from BITE ME? Let us know in the comments below! Or you can let us know on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook!
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