Feed The Beast - Kim Petras: Review
Kim Petras
is a pop singer who has been bubbling under for a while. After initially coming up in a hyper-pop parallel underground for years she had her mainstream pop breakthrough last year. As a guest on Sam Smith's single Unholy, Kim and Sam became two of the most successful charting transgender artists of all time.
Review by Lav:
Figuring out Kim Petras can be a bit difficult. When she broke onto the scene it wasn't just exciting to see a trans girl turning herself into a fascinatingly plastic pop star, but the music was good too. I still have nothing but strong feelings for her debut album Clarity which featured one great single after another. Since then it's been much more of a mixed bag. Her Turn The Lights Off series of Halloween albums are stylish but relatively simple. Last year she dropped the Slut Pop EP which many critiqued for its sledgehammer bluntness and repetitive songs. So despite having some absolutely amazing songs in her discography like I Don't Want It All, Clarity, There Will Be Blood, and Malibu, her overall discography is a mixed bag.
When Kim revealed the record's tracklist it also didn't help my anticipation. brr is a single that I originally liked and still do but it feels extremely tacked onto the record. Alone is a decent collaboration between Kim and Nicki Minaj but it's as notable for the missed potential as what it actually delivers. Also, Coconuts pops up in the tracklist. In the long time since I've last heard the song, I think some of the novelty of it has returned but I still think including it on the album here is weird.
Really the thing I worried about the most was how Kim's personality had begun to evaporate from her music. There are a few songs here that buck the trend. Sex Talk is easily the best song on the record. It's bright and bubbly in the way Kim operates best at. It's such a welcome moment between the catchy refrains and irresistibly bouncy instrumental. Revelations has an achingly dramatic presentation that I like a lot. The guitar solo it concludes with reminds me of a much more classic sense of club music.
Speaking of club songs, that's where the record seems to operate at its best. King Of Hearts is a thumping club jam that has quickly become the biggest fan favorite on the record for good reason. Not only does it have lyrics actually worth paying attention to but it builds meaningfully into a soaring hook. uhoh feel like Kim Petras' formula synthesized with the hard-hitting beat, sweet melodies, and silly bragging. It's not the most polished thing in the world but I can't help but like it.
On the record's more sentimental side of things, results are much more mixed. Thousand Pieces is probably the weakest example with a muted and emotionally dry hook that isn't really catchy enough to carry the weight of what she's saying. While Claws is just a slightly better version of this formula the real highlight of the bunch is Minute. The song's contrast of cold beat and bouncy synths is great and the transition in and out of the hook sounds wonderful.
The record isn't without its duds. Bait might be the most interesting BANS song I've ever heard but it still lands somewhere around the D Tier of Kim Petras tracks. Castle In The Sky might be the most completely anonymous track of Kim's entire career so far. It's so underwhelmingly nondescript that you could almost mistake it as royalty-free music if it didn't feature some of her unmistakable breathy backing vocals at the end.
Feed The Beast isn't nearly as bad as the critical consensus building against it would make you think. The record does have its highlights and many of the lowest points are more boring than anything else. What it really lacks is personality. For the first time in Kim's career she's released an album that doesn't feel unmistakably her own. The unfortunate truth about it is that while the record is decent, Feed The Beast could have been made by anyone. 6/10
For more pop music check out my review of Jessie Ware's That! Feels Good
