After a year of build-up, King Princess has finally announced her debut album, Cheap Queen, and dropped its second single, "Prophet."
In "Prophet," arguably King Princess' most nuanced song yet and definitely one of her personal favorites, the artist submits to obsession. On top of an ongoing, plucky bass line and a series of deeply satisfying guitar riffs, she layers singing that toggles between grounded and breathy to build towards an impassioned, intensely craving vocal close.
KP's lyrics in the song are minimal, their words deftly chosen to spin a web of wanting — wanting, that is, in both its greediest and most intimate forms. "You know what you want, it's / Only 'bout the money and control / Can't step off it, someone else will cop it / Like it's gold, you're a prophet / Someone's gonna profit," KP muses darkly on the second verse.
One lyric, in particular, sounds like King Princess singing into a dark reflecting pool. "No apologies, twisting your words and your prophecies," she sings on the bridge. "And honestly, it's the price of the prodigy-wannabe." At only 20 years old, and having already amassed a near-obsessive fanbase, the singer-songwriter is proving to be something of a prodigy herself.
Cheap Queen is due out this fall via Mark Ronson's Zelig/Columbia Records. The record also includes the titular track, which the up-and-coming queer icon released as a single and video earlier this summer. If "Cheap Queen" and the latest single are any indication, King Princess' first full-length is sure to meet, and likely surpass, the high bar set by her 2018 EP, Make My Bed.
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