Kim Petras - "Problematique"
The intended debut album got surprise-dropped
Problematique was intended to be Petras’ debut album, however it faced delays and was ultimately leaked before it ever got an official release, causing it to be shelved. Feed the Beast, thus, became Petras’ debut LP instead, and Problematique was a surprise bonus album release a few months later. This surprise release was seemingly worthy of an AP News push notification, which suggested it might be worth my time.
The album’s title riffs off of the word “problematic”, but, you know, cute. And French. It’s meant to be fun, but it really just leans into the trope of a pop artist leaning into the concepts of fame and wealth.1 To take it a step further, track three, “All She Wants”, features the poster-girl for the concept of “problematique”: Paris Hilton.
While I don’t love this concept (and the first three tracks lean heavily into it), the album, as a whole, is thirty minutes of decent dance-pop, with the last two-thirds shifting to focus more on love and sex than vapid materiality (though it never truly disappears).
Most of the music here is okay. There are a lot of electronic elements at play, with a big focus on danceability. But there’s nothing of true substance. It’s fun background music, but nothing you would want to play to impress anybody. Feed the Beast is, ultimately, a much more fitting debut effort.
Rating: Orange
I mean, I’m not surprised, knowing that one of her primary producers was also behind Ke$ha.