Kim Petras is on a pop Detour

Kim Petras has built a career on horny pop. The tracks she’s most famous for like ‘Treat Me Like A Slut’, ‘Death By Sex’ and even ‘Coconuts’ are infectious self-love anthems that have played a larger part than I’d like to admit in helping me heal from every breakup. She’s the unofficial leader of the bimbo pop cult, and she’s not afraid to be seen as gauche or superficial. 

Her (self-proclaimed) debut album, Detour, however, introduces us to a side of Petras we haven’t seen before. Arriving right on time as the hyper-pop movement continues to gather momentum with Charli XCX’s Brat and Slayyyter’s WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA still dominating the charts, Detour is a maximalist course correction with a touch of tenderness and a whole lot of five-star production. 

The entire sonic and visual identity of Detour is exceptionally well evolved. It’s more personal and mature than anything we’ve seen from the German popstar so far, but still just as poppy and fun. Distributed by Petras’ own label, BunHead Records, the album features a range of collaborators including the late SOPHIE, who wrote and produced ‘Basketball’. 

The visual world of Detour is as high-frequency and infectious as the album itself. Working with Creative Director Eli Sheppard, Petras captured most of the video footage on a humble iPhone 4, a callback to the golden era of DIY pop music. Detour is a nostalgic and gritty look into Kim Petras as a fully-formed, ferocious popstar, and it will be on repeat all summer. Listen to Detour.