Album Review: King Princess’s Introspective, Heart-Breaking, and Sexy Debut
After releasing viral sensation “1950” and touring for over a year, King Princess has finally released her debut album, Cheap Queen. Lacing raw vulnerability with smooth pop-rock rhythms, King Princess demonstrates her killer songwriting while conveying an emotional wisdom well beyond her twenty years.
Written by Ellen Daly
Photo Courtesy of Stereogum
King Princess was born to make music. She grew up in her dad’s Brooklyn recording studio and developed an affinity for the craft in her youth. She went off to study music at the University of Southern California, wrote “1950,” dropped out to focus on music, and went viral overnight when Harry Styles tweeted the lyrics “I love it when we play 1950.”
Since then, King Princess’s popularity has grown exponentially. The Brooklyn native released her first EP in June of 2018 and immediately began touring. She has since played some of the biggest festivals in the world: Coachella, Glastonbury, Lollapalooza, and, just recently, Austin City Limits. At 20 years old, she did all of this without having released a single album.
On Friday, October 25, King Princess made her highly anticipated debut with the heart-wrenching LP, titled Cheap Queen, which fittingly borrows drag vernacular to allude to the role queer culture has played in her upbringing. The technically minimalistic album proves that King Princess does not need elaborate production to make quality music; her clever songwriting and self-assurance do the work for her. The album’s sound is effortlessly smooth and actualizes exactly what it is ― the diary of a teen thrust into fame while still trying to navigate love, identity, and relationships.
The opening track, “Tough on Myself,” introduces the level of honesty present throughout the rest of the album, with the chorus simply stating, “I get too tough on myself / Sitting alone, making fun of myself.” Thereafter, the album is stacked with increasingly saddening tracks: “Ain’t Together” tells the story of being in love without being in a relationship, “Do You Wanna See Me Crying?” is a spiteful but self-aware breakup song, “Isabel’s Moment” channels the uncertainty surrounding the end of a relationship, and “Watching My Phone” painfully awaits that text that just won’t arrive. For most of its duration, Cheap Queen is a quintessential breakup album.
Photo courtesy of Ones To Watch
Amidst these emotionally charged songs, King Princess also sprinkles some power anthems throughout the album. Title track “Cheap Queen” grapples with the difficulties of stepping into the spotlight at a young age and maintaining creative integrity despite the temptations of materialism and egotism. Similarly, “Prophet” deals with obsession and the metaphorically capitalistic implications of being addicted to a person. The ideas presented by these tracks are so grandiose that their minimalistic, groovy beats sound like a natural backdrop to the show the lyrics put on.
A standout moment on the album is the latest single “Hit the Back,” which King Princess herself described as “the anthem for bottoms everywhere,” and so graciously dedicated to her girlfriend on Instagram. The track nicely contrasts the melancholy feel of the rest of the album and takes a moment to celebrate queer love while offering hope for listeners. Lyrically raunchy but still sonically understated, the track strays away from the complex subjects of the rest of the album, and rejoices in the glory of King Princess’s current lifestyle ― shaking off heartbreak, celebrating the release of a new album, dancing on stage every night, and, once again, in love.
On Cheap Queen, King Princess successfully proves her worth as a songwriter and a visionary. The album is risqué without being trashy, introspective without being pretentious, and mellow without being boring. She relies purely on emotion to guide her both lyrically and melodically, and in doing so, she’s shown tremendous artistic potential and created a beautifully honest debut album.