Girl Violence
The third album from the Brooklyn-born pop provocateur took shape during a period of upheaval: In one turbulent summer, the artist born Mikaela Straus left her longtime label, her Los Angeles apartment, and her four-year relationship. Instead of fighting the chaos, the musician embraced it, resulting in what could ostensibly be called a breakup album. But on *Girl Violence*, King Princess swaggers rather than sulks, streamlining her formerly eclectic sound for a slinky, sexy deep dive into the havoc women wreak upon each other’s lives. “Why does nobody mention that girls can be violent?” she growls on the title track, concluding: “I hate it, but I kinda like it.” After moving back to NYC in 2023, Straus began working with a pair of Brooklyn-based producers: Jacob Portrait of the psych-rock band Unknown Mortal Orchestra, and Joe Pincus, who’d made beats for SZA and Doechii. Together, the trio crafted a sound steeped in late-’90s electronica and reverb-heavy rock, using heartbreak as a springboard for questions about human nature. Doo-wop meets dream pop on “Girls,” a slow-burner for the down-bad on which Straus yowls in her smokiest rasp: “To let you back in/That would be violence/That would be chaos/I wanna try it.” Luckily, all that drama builds character. On “Origin,” a sultry downtempo number, she begins to get her groove back: “I’ve had to face fire, fight fear/And spend a lot of time in the mirror/And I’m cool, I’m weirder/I’m hot, I’m deeper/I’m starting to feel myself again.”
The third King Princess is polished and instinctual, exploring feelings of pain and pleasure through catalogue callbacks and stylistic strengths.
King Princess levels up in every direction – louder, funnier, hornier, sadder, and, crucially, freer.