REVIEW: KING PRINCESS - HOLD ON BABY

  

4/5

King & Princess.

"Hey, my love!" The moment I heard the atmospheric 'Talia' speak for the first time in 2019, like 'Say It' by Maggie Rogers. I knew that this was instantly going to be one of my favourite songs and singers. Both of them. Both of them had the albums of the year back then. 'Heard It In A Past Life' for Rogers and our 'Cheap Queen' and expensive King Princess. Both of them release candidates for this calendar today, stepping their great games up. Maggie with a 'Surrender' and now Mikaela Mullaney Straus AKA, King Princess telling us 'Hold On Baby'. All on the same day as a Beyoncé 'Renaissance' as pop is in a perfect place right now. Now that's what I call a New Music Friday. And we thought last week (Jack White and the RZA's second albums of the year, Ben Harper, She and Him paying tribute to a Beach Boys and the most outstanding ODESZA) was hot for the Summer. Princess has so much on her throne she can release hit singles that never make albums ('Talia') like '1950' (as 'Harry's House' tells it in style). Or the most romantic song I've ever sang to my girlfriend ('Pussy Is God'. And I'm not trying to be ironic, or chauvinistic). The quarantine anthem 'Only Time Makes It Human' in 2020, locked down that notion. As did last years 'House Burn Down' and 'Pain'. Perfectly boxed up and filed away on their outstanding own. This is a King who even affords more of a definitive deluxe edition to her classic debut, 'All Dressed In White' to 'Ohio' with your 'Best Friend'. But now for your jewel case, 'Baby' comes a perfect package, wrapped in the album artwork of an owl's wings. Straus, wanting to be known for this like another Prince artist was doves that cry. And for her reign, this is a hoot. 

Don't worry, 'For My Friends', there's so much more on constant repeat rotation. "Loving me takes patience", she sings on the stellar single, in her own sonic star stratosphere now. And we could wait forever. It would be 'Little Bother' like the Fousheé flossed hit that tells us, "I guess.../I'm screwed from my past life/And that's why I lost you/But if I think of the timeline/You were exhausting/But we couldn't have said goodbye/Yeah it wasn't an option/While you're watching the paint dry/Remember you lost me", Mikaela muses, as once again her and Maggie show that there's no others better at delivering real and raw relationship lyrics today. Call it 'Cursed' all you like, but once that song hits it'll never lift. "It's good to know that you don't carry hate/Like bricks inside your coat", she cloaks and devotes. A minute after stating 'I Hate Myself (we love you, King), I Want To Party (us too, Princess)', "but instead, baby, I watch TV, f### my girl, check my phone/Play PS5, change my shirt and drink alone/Baby, and only I can bring me down", for the record in opening. But despite the fall, 'Winter Is Hopeful' in all the bounty of its beauty. For Quinn, dearly devoting, "I just love you more when you’re gone, mm/You're worried 'bout girls that I know/Meanwhile I’m singing you praises alone/You're a piece of my home." Wrenching this one like a 'Crowbar' "prying at the chip on my shoulder" and the queen of interludes playing like songs like holding on to the title-track, baby. 'Too Bad' even the greatest in the game, don't have tracks and attitude like this for days. "You're family/And I told you I'ma be too much/Oh, I get scary/And it seems like you're giving up/But when I feel abandoned, a loose cannon/And I'm stuck with the blood on my hands/Oh, I understand it, I'm manic/But you're trying to f### with my plans/Oh, I've heard it all before." The love and loyalty in this passionate person's heart is like no other soul. Especially in an ignorant industry. Don't let her 'Change The Locks' on her heart, or her studio apartment of music with a key on the dresser, "because you're bored." Because it's over now. The throne is fit for a King. 

Don't just call her Princess. Sign on the 'Dotted Lines' with all her impression and inspiration, influencing this perfect day in pop. "I think I'm tied to the bed/Pray I wake and these feelings are dead (Ohh)/I got a lot to regret/Like dotted lines that I signed at 17/I'm f#####' better than them/I'll give 'em good s### again and again, no end/They should be happy and fed up/But instead." What were we just a saying about the industry and how much material Mikaela Mullaney has again? Better hit the 'Sex Shop' if you can't vibrate with that and 'Hit The Back'. "You're a King, Princess" she meta sings like a song that could have been named after herself like a Fistful Of Mercy (no pun intended). "Trying to grip onto something/I don't got a hold of/And I wish that I could fit the frame/Like my hand fits on your waist", speaking of sex struggles in lust looking for love. 'Let Us Die' screams the curtain in closing for another classic for the catalogue, no sophomore slump. All for a still relatively new artist that feels like she's been here for years thanks to the decadence that's coming to a definitive in the making discography. Just imagine what it'll be like when this Princess crowns as many albums as she does singular singles, b-sides and interludes (Maggie too). "I knew this would happen/You're angry and you're captured/And I feel the rapture/Oh I'm not your captor/I hate being hopeless/And you're startin' to notice/And that makes me hopeful/And that makes me feel/Like we'll be alright", King Princess sings. Roaring, "Drive the car right off the cliff and let us dive", as her and Rogers play 'Thelma and Louise' like 2019 again over the canyon. Grand. Today might be the day of the Queen B, Beyoncé. But this world that's run by girls would be nothing without the King. Hold on to that, baby. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Playlist Picks: 'Cursed', 'Little Bother (Feat. Fousheé), 'For My Friends'.