Chelsea Collins, the Californian pop powerhouse has started 2022 in defiant mood and she’s ready to settle some scores with anyone that may have let her down in the last couple of years. Gone is the pop princess for now as Chelsea adopts a much more pop-rock grunge sound that brings to mind Avril Lavigne and early P!nk. The new song starts the new year with a statement of intent. The resentful lyrics are still brilliantly sung by the artist but this time she is joined by distorted electric guitar and a hard, innovative production that manages to sound fresh but slightly nostalgic at the same time.
Chelsea says of her current state of mind:
“I started to feel angst I haven’t felt since high school and wanted to gear (the single) towards everyone who has done me wrong the past two years. I can definitely be a pushover sometimes, and writing a petty song like ‘WISH U HELL’ made me feel like I was taking my power back and using my voice”
Chelsea seems to have got herself down a bit of a rabbit hole. She opens the song with painful and vicious thoughts that she was having during a recent bout of depression and this ties in very neatly with the feeling I get from this new release. Nowadays when people say they “went down the rabbit hole”, it usually means they have spent way too long reading about or taking notice of something on the internet and have felt themselves being sucked into the metaphorical rabbit hole.
Chelsea, like so many young artists have to cope with the added pressure these days of social media and whilst that can be a wonderful way to raise a profile, it can be fraught with the danger of starting to take too much notice of what people think. There are many out there, especially in the world of music and social media, that will psychologically manipulate others by making promises they later deny in order to play mind games that result in confusion, bewilderment and sadly depression. Chelsea Collins to date has managed to carve herself a respected place in new pop music and I hope that this song and its invitation to the listeners to join her as she turns impulsive darkness into constructive and empowering change, is indication that she is emerging from the rabbit hole and, like Alice before her, discovering her own Wonderland as she raises a middle finger to the gaslighters.
The powerful video definitely has a subconscious nod towards a modern twist on Alice reminding me of DC’s latest take on Alice in Batwoman. The song and its video have Chelsea using her animal posse, her animal thoughts and impulses personified, fighting through the dark thoughts to emerge free as she discards the toxicity that once controlled her. The aggression, the lyricism will resonate with anyone who has suffered a chaotic episode in their lives as the artist sings:
“I hope you walk in on your girlfriend with your dad/ lose all your money in a 1-800 scam/ I hope your sex tape ends up on the internet/ so that the whole world can pour a drink and have a laugh”
Chelsea explains her motivation for the new song as she tells us:
“For me, ‘WISH U HELL’ evokes the nostalgic feeling of being 9 years old, jumping on my bed pretending I’m a rock star, singing to that one specific guy who did me wrong in the imaginary crowd. I’ve always dreamed of playing arenas and still being able to make eye contact with that one person you wrote the song about. Song writing is how I express my feelings best. So, listen to your gut and know you deserve better! Never lessen your worth for anyone!”
I think we can safely take two things from this new song and what Chelsea has to say. This is a new year and she intends to shed negativity like an old skin and be reborn into a new phase of her music with new positivity and belief. Secondly, if this song is about you, I would avoid that moment Chelsea plays her first arena, and it will come, because she will be looking for you, making eye contact and singing this song to you.
