Rating: 5/5 stars
Kim Petras’ extraordinary rise to stardom has gone down in history with her Grammy win alongside English artist Sam Smith (“Desire”). The pair won 2023’s Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their performance of 2022’s hit “Unholy.” The first openly transgender artist to receive such an award, Petras has simultaneously broken down an unprecedented barrier for those in the music industry while pushing forward her ever-thriving career.
Alongside her remarkable winning of a Grammy, Petras has also released her long-awaited album “Problématique,” a segment of her discography inspired by French house, characterized as a blend between Euro disco and a strand of late 1990s/early 2000s European EDM. While now publicly available, “Problématique” has seen a strenuous history well before it was ever released, as it faced multiple pushbacks that eventually culminated in the album’s scraping after a mass leak in 2022. Intended to be Petras’s major debut album, the dissolving of “Problématique” last year left Petras in limbo, but the artist pushed her fans to listen to the leaks regardless, unsure if the album would ever come to see the light of day.
Although the future of “Problématique” was bleak at the time, Petras would go on to release “Feed the Beast” this year, a substitute for her original debut album that would include hit singles such as the aforementioned “Unholy” and “Alone” with rapper Nicki Minaj (“Last Time I Saw You”). While Petras’ album recognition was in part through the proxy of Sam Smith, it saw commercial success regardless and was critical in Petras’ placement as a rising artist.
In 2022, Petras shocked fans with the surprise release of X-rated “Sl*t Pop,” an EP deriving inspiration from Britney Spears’ (“MIND YOUR BUSINESS”) “Blackout” album. This momentum of releasing music collections without warning would set the stage for Sept. 28, when she would officially unveil the once-lost “Problématique” album.
“Problématique” delivers rightfully on the French house style; the fluctuations between soft and pulsating electronic beats parallel Petras’ dichotomy between mellow and powerful vocals, and the EDM blending makes it physically compelling to move alongside the music. Petras’ songs follow a linear trend of “teenage dream” infatuation and attraction up to the climax of passion and sexual innuendos, with one end of the spectrum commencing at “Born Again” or “Confession” and the other end finishing at “Dirty Things” and “Treat Me Like a H*.” This progression in themes is double edged, however; while it allows Petras some liberty in the topics of her works in this album, the upcoming songs become somewhat predictable. It is easy to spot how “Je T’Adore,” which roughly translates to “I Love You” in English, will differ drastically from “Deeper,” a title that insinuates promiscuity on its own.
This slight predictability is the only flaunter in the album if it can even be called one. The composure of the “Problématique” collection is one of mastery and patience, and the time it has taken to release this album is crystal-clear when listening to it. “Problématique,” the feature song of Petras’ album, deserves only the finest headphones to listen to her expert changes in tone and inflection, the bouncing rhythm a constant reminder of the album’s core music style. While the fate of this album had at one point been up to a coin toss, Petras’ dedication to her work and vision led to the creation of this finely tuned piece, regardless of the complication that plagued the album a year ago.
Image from Kim Petras via Spotify
