Album Review: Kim Petras – Feed The Beast
2 min read
German singer-songwriter Kim Petras is name that has been propelled into the public consciousness recently. Her collaboration with Sam Smith in 2022 Unholy not only gained world-wide success, but earned the pair grammy awards and viral stardom. Kim herself has been working in the industry publicly since 2016, and has come out with her third album, Feed The Beast.
The title track is a bounding dance number that gallops along to Kim’s tightly sung melody. As an opener, it sets the vibrant pop mood, complete with sub-bass drops, rhythmic drumming, and a catchy synth line. Alone with Nicky Minaj continues the early 2000s, current pop production mix, featuring an all-too-familiar sample as the hook, but with fresh lyricism and vocals. King of Hearts pulls no punches, the almost obnoxious synth line slapping you in the face immediately. It’s an in-your-face tune with a hint of early Lady Gaga, but one that still rides the line between contemporary and throw-back. The energy is kept alive by the one-two punch of uhoh and Revelations, the former bouncing along with an infectious beat, Kim talking herself up while simultaneously urging the listener to get with the program. The latter takes a more distorted 80s flair, arpeggiated synths and funky guitars compressed to a suffocating level, with the result being an all-encompassing experience.
BAIT with BANKS is a low-key midpoint, keeping the vocal energy equal but stripping back the instrumental. Sex Talk and Hit It From The Back are self-explanatory in their themes, while Claws takes a darker approach to love. The album concludes with hits Coconuts and brrr, new song Castle In The Sky nestled between. This one takes on a K-Pop formula, and perfectly bridges the two songs. Aptly, however, Unholy concluded the album, the Sam Smith song that propelled Kim’s career into the stratosphere. Here it fits just as appropriately as it did on Sam’s album, and works as an excellent ending.
Feed The Beast comes across as exactly what it says it is. In its runtime, the album has little moments of rest, bombarding listeners with club banger and club banger. The highlights are the tracks that push the sound-spectrum, interweaving elements of future-pop and abrasive effects, but there is little here to bring it down from this high peak. It’s a record that knows exactly what it’s meant to be – a non-stop party.
Writer and Musician, Ryan Bulbeck has been published with a number of online publications, and has worked with a myriad of great artists, both as a performer, and as a producer. His most recent band The 295 are still active, playing shows around the UK.
