Kim Petras stakes her claim as the new princess of pop on uncompromising debut Feed The Beast

Kim Petras has never been shy about her pop-star machinations; a fan first and foremost, the German talent was learning English by watching Britney Spears videos on YouTube long before she was praying to the altar of Paris Hilton in the music video for her debut single, “I Don’t Want It At All.”

Penning pop songs proved a form of escapism for the young transgender teen, who relocated to Los Angeles, aged 19, in pursuit of bright lights. “Every day I thought about giving up,” she told The Guardian last year. “But I couldn’t. You just have to get up again and again until people can’t ignore how good you are.” Sam Smith’s chart-dominating reinvention, “Unholy,” made Petras hard to ignore as she became the first openly trans woman to win a major category Grammy, and while Petras has long had to adjust to all manner of tabloid commentary, the accolade give her prime opportunity to capitalise on public attention to her benefit.

As her mainstream debut album, Feed The Beast is everything Petras has ever threatened to be, now underpinned by the clout to command a production pool to underpin her trajectory. Collaborations across the 15 tracks check premium songwriting stock including some of plastic pop’s big hitters; there’s a Max Martin credit in there for low-key R&B moment “Thousand Pieces,” an affirmation if there ever was one – but not entirely necessary. The respective production of Ojivolta and ILYA, doused and dripping like honey, provide moody interjections with the salaciously slick R&B of “BAIT,” featuring BANKS, and “brr.” As an opening trio, “Feed The Beast,” “Alone,” and “King of Hearts” are a forceful amalgamation of her euro-trash best that leaves one salivating as much as paralysed by its palpitating synths. “Everything I drop is a banger,” Petras states, matter-of-fact, on self-aggrandising anthem “Uhoh.”

Recent side projects provided a curveball for Petras to wildly explore in the safety of a singularly immersive concept to lasting effect. The echoes of TURN OFF THE LIGHT can be felt in the horror-inflected lyrics and pumping beat of “Claws,” while the coercive disco undercurrent of “REVELATIONS” could be mistaken for a turn by The Weeknd were it not for Petras’ theatrical wailing taking steer. “Sex Talk” and “Hit It From The Back” capture the lightheartedness of a flirty, dirty summer, and the surprise addition of “Coconuts” reinforces the playful humour found in last year’s EP Slut Pop.

Despite being as zesty as it is entertaining, Feed The Beast feels compromised as it shoots for the stars; by incorporating so many flavours of the past alongside the 2020s penchant of sampling iconic early-noughties anthems (or, in this case, two; with Alice Deejay’s “Better Off Alone” and Ian Van Dahl’s “Castles in the Sky”) and aiming to sate both mainstream and alt-pop fans, it results in not being quite enough of either, with the glossy touch of Dr Luke being as much of its undoing as it is its saviour.

None of this means that Petras doesn’t know who she wants to be, quite the opposite – she has always known, but Feed The Beast permeates an artist wanting to be every version of themselves all at once. Petras needn’t fear for her relevancy as she has proven time and again her power as a songwriter and performer. Her quest for pop-stardom is nowhere near over, so she can approach album two with patience, and breathe.