King Princess’s ‘Cheap Queen’ Gets Richer

“If you’re alone and or been broken up wit before or on valentimes day, i have the very perfect record for you,” King Princess wrote in the caption of an Instagram post promoting her Feb. 14 release of “Cheap Queen (Deluxe).” This expanded version of her widely celebrated debut album includes a “Disc 2” with five new tracks, including one featuring singer, songwriter, and producer Banoffee and her Feb. 10 single “Ohio” and every one of them is a scathing testament to love, its pains, and its truths.

“Back of a Cab,” the infectious first new track, opens with dialogue from the 1955 short film “A Word to the Wives,” which follows a wife who tricks her husband into buying her a new kitchen based on the advice of her friend. With the inclusion of “A Word to the Wives,” King Princess appears to pay homage to her breakout hit, “1950.” By continuing to toy with the conventional gender roles that women play in traditional relationships, she turns the idea of a woman who submits to her husband on its head in “Back of a Cab.” The dialogue, then, is both unconventional and completely logical for King Princess, who further blurs the lines of gender noramtivity by referring to her her work as “gay shit” in the second verse. The film dialogue is later layered throughout the song among ethereal harmonies and a heavily reverbed saxophone, a move reminiscent of her characteristic SoundCloud remixes of celebrity quotes. Mellow pop beats bubble up under King Princess’s voice as she sings of missing the experiences she shared with her first love, like dancing in the back of a cab, despite the issues that marred their relationship. “I guess it's hard to realize that your heart never healed right / And the hard part of movin' on is you always take a piece from your last love, through your next life,” she sings over the blend of synths.

Next on the album is “All Dressed in White,” a bluesy waltz characterized by a smooth electric guitar that rises and falls with King Princess’s pleas to the “queen of her living room” as she begs for a chance to “be good” and see her dressed in white. The sultry languor of the song drags on while King Princess's voice appears to break under the weight of her longing as she sings “And it’s all my fault (I know) / I want to be yours (I’m sure) / I’m trying my best (For you, for you)” — anything to dance with her love.

“Forget About It,” featuring Banoffee, is the perfect King Princess pop song. Its fiery guitar intro mimics King Princess’s own fiery attitude towards the song’s subject: “And I thought that I would never do better / But I'm already better,” she tells them. Banoffee’s contribution to the song comes in the form of heavily autotuned cuts that betray King Princess’s guise of moving on. King Princess sings that she’s forgotten about her past flame, yet her autotune reveals that in reality she’s “waiting and waiting / For you to come, you to come.” Despite, or perhaps because of, King Princess’s feigned disinterest in her past lover, the song begs to be danced to with its syncopated beats and distorted guitar riffs.

The fourth new song, “Best Friend,” is laceratingly sweet. Its hollow, saccharine beats have the veneer of openness and second chances, but the lyrics go in the other direction, promising that she’s “gon’ be cold” towards the past partner that spurned her for another and now wants a second chance.

“Ohio” is a standout on “Disc 2,” and on all of “Cheap Queen.” Though it’s familiar to older fans — she’s been performing the number since 2018 — King Princess gives everything to this track and it shows. The song starts melodramatically, with a lone acoustic guitar as King Princess laments the effects of distance on a past relationship. “How's it been in Ohio, babe? / Do you think about me / When you're going home?” she sings. In an uncharacteristic move for King Princess, however, the song’s bridge breaks out into pure energy. Heavily distorted power chords and crashing symbols take over as King Princess lets go of her generally smooth vocals in exchange for growling and shouting. Her energy is relentless as she teases her past flame with “Come here and I’ll show you what I like about it.” King Princess is power and freedom, grunge and sincerity all at once. “Ohio” exemplifies all of this more than any other song on the album, as she indulges in a temporary break from indie pop in favor of her own special brand of rock n’ roll.

— Staff writer Sofia Andrade can be reached at sofia.andrade@thecrimson.com.