Following the release of Chappell Roan's single "Pink Pony Club" in 2020 and her being subsequently dropped by Atlantic Records, she and producer Dan Nigro began working on "Casual". Much of the song's inspiration would come from a long-distance relationship she began online during the pandemic, where her partner online called her their "dream girl" and would soon make Roan attached to them. Yet, one week later, they texted Roan that they were seeing someone else, leaving her "devastated", and learning shortly thereafter that they had told her friend that their relationship was only casual. In a Rolling Stone interview, she stated that she internally responded to the situation with "'What the fuck do you mean it was casual? We were telling secrets and talking literally every day!'"[8]
Regarding the song’s main hook, which describes oral sex in a car ("knee-deep in the passenger seat, and you’re eating me out, is it casual now"), Roan revealed she was nervous prior to the release of the song, due to the line's sexually explicit nature.[9]
Critical reception
The song was acclaimed by critics. Jem Aswald for Variety wrote that "Casual" was Roan's "most irresistible" single to date and likened the singer's "stately" delivery to the style of Lana Del Rey. Aswald also noted the song's explicit lyrics.[1] In another positive review for NPR, Stephen Thompson also highlighted the "explicit details" of Roan's song and posited that "all the smartly phrased specifics that make "Casual" sing: the blurry images of future domesticity, the re-contextualized conversation with a relative, the eternal miscalculation of clinging to sex as a stand-in for emotional intimacy."[10]
In two reviews for Pitchfork, Olivia Horn called "Casual" a "high point" of the album and wrote that the song was a "cocktail of sorrow and scorn at a romantic partner," elaborating that the song's outro "turns up the heat and raises the stakes,"[11] whereas Jane Bua praised Roan's "biting candor" and opined that the "stacked" vocals in the chorus added "the flavor of a Chicks song."[2]
Music video
The music video for "Casual" was released on March 9, 2023 and was directed by Hadley Hillel.[12] In the video, Roan begins a casual relationship with a siren played by Mika Leshā. For Teen Vogue, Roan described the concept for the video as "Aquamarine, but like, gay".[13]
