Less than a minute into her second album, Reneé Rapp quips: “Can I tell you a secret / I’m so sick of it all.” The “it all” in question isn’t hard to fathom out. Alongside star-making turns in Mean Girls: The Musical and The Sex Lives of College Girls, in recent years a string of unfiltered press junkets, chaotic interviews, and YouTube compilations with names like “Reneé Rapp making her PR team question their life choices for 6 minutes” have rocketed the singer-actor to mainstream celebrity, where she’s remained boldly, unashamedly herself.
Lead single and opener Leave Me Alone’s verses illustrate her penchant for bluntness — with its cries of “leave me alone bitch / I wanna have fun” — while kicking off ‘Bite Me’ with barbs at a press cycle that wouldn’t leave her alone and a music industry that wanted more of her.
They seem to come from a desire to be left to her own devices, making music and behaving messily, as she illustrates on Why Is She Still Here?, with its laments about heartbreak and seeming infidelity, and Kiss It Kiss It, which revels in its tale of a hookup.
Rapp glides effortlessly over the chorus and, throughout, her voice is the record’s best asset. She’s a phenomenal singer, particularly when given free rein to display her range, from indignant to sultry or yearning and everything in between.
Unfortunately, ‘Bite Me’ doesn’t always do that. The writing here is inconsistent, relying on magnetic performances and daring lyrics to carry misses such as Good Girl, a mostly uninteresting riff on ‘80s synthpop that doesn’t lean into it hard enough, or Shy, a song that recycles a beat that you can’t quite put your finger on.
There’s talent and star power to burn here, but ‘Bite Me’ doesn’t do enough to help Rapp stand out from the pack as she could easily do with writing that isn’t just “good enough”.
Renee Rapp Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Wed March 18 2026 - MANCHESTER AO Arena
Thu March 19 2026 - LONDON OVO Arena Wembley
Fri March 20 2026 - LONDON OVO Arena Wembley
Sun March 22 2026 - DUBLIN 3Arena
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
