Hi everyone! Clickthony Clacktano here, the internet's busiest— sweatiest music nerd, really. And it's time for a review of this new Kim Petras album, Detour.

New record from pop singer and songwriter, Miss Kim Petras. Kim has been making waves in music, for a while now, really since about the turn of the 2020s. Though thus far in my eyes, she's really only been able to attain flashes of mainstream success. As far as the modern pop landscape is concerned, I've found a lot of her longer projects to be kind of generic and scant. But I will say I do find her Slut Pop series quite charming and hilarious. How can you hate songs about rimjobs and whale cock? All that being said, though, a lack of originality and also some raunchy lyrical content are far from the biggest roadblocks in Kim's career.

After all, recently she was at odds with her record label, Republic, claiming on social media that this album here has been done and ready for six months, but was still yet to receive a release date for it, something that is pretty believable, frankly, given that some of the big singles from this project date back to 2025, which is when I'm sure she would have wished to drop this.

And not only that, but Kim's longstanding collaborative relationship with polarizing producer Dr. Luke has also been a point of criticism, not just among skeptics of her career, but fans too. And even that, with this new record over here, seems to have faltered, or at least the message has gotten through, as she seems to be moving on creatively with this LP, collaborating predominantly with the songwriting-production duo known as Frost Children, with many more production credits on this record from the likes of Porches, Margo XS, as well as the legendary Sophie.

And honestly, this is a pretty exciting prospect.

For a long time, I've always thought Kim has been held back at least a little bit by some of her beats and instrumentals running a bit dime a dozen. Maybe something more adventurous or alternative could make her songs more intriguing. Even if Frost Children's last full-length project, Sister, in my eyes kind of left a bit of something to be desired. But yeah, I really do think they could all bring out the best in each other here. And it's also clear Kim herself was trying to frame this album as a change of pace in her catalog, a new chapter.

I mean, after all, it is a detour. And the opening lyrics on this record read: "This is the beginning of the end / Everything before is just pretend."

So, taking things into a different direction, doing a reset, that is obviously Kim's intention here. But whether or not she achieves that is another question. I mean, off the bat, is there a case to be made that this is Kim's best project so far? I think so. But from the start of this thing, I do think in a way there is a pretty clear lack of character and vision.

I mean, the sonics of the title track, for example, are playing very much to these kind of, like, brat-inspired electropop and hyperpop trends that are still all the rage right now. And while it's not a bad song for sure, I wouldn't blame a casual listener for, you know, hearing this track in passing and thinking it might actually be a Charli XCX song.

But following this, the track "DTLA" is even worse, because I feel like this song has no identity whatsoever and doesn't really know what it wants to do, as it's constantly shifting in mood and sound, going from sad electropop pop ballad to 2000s club banger. Also Pure Heroin-era Lorde for some reason. Not to mention how the synthesizers change at moments on this song, like around the 80-second mark, leaves Kim's autotuned vocals feeling almost out of tune, or at the very least out of place.

I don't think this record really, you know, gets its stride going until "I Like Ur Look," which brings more electropop vibes, but with kind of a sweet, flirty, chill, approachable presentation. It's a cohesive tune with an anthemic chorus, with a message that brings a play on relationship dynamics and fashion, likening being with someone to wearing them, and how Kim believes that this person that she's singing about looks better on her than someone else. The following few tracks, I will say there's certainly something to, "Check It" and "Polo," but the former I think could have been developed a bit more in terms of layers and length, and the latter does really kind of feel like nothing more than some passable Sophie worship, like with the kind of production from the Product era.

But when it comes to the track "Brutalist," frankly, I'm floored. It's one of my favorite songs she's ever done. Really snappy synthpop whose whole lyrical metaphor is really kind of diving into Kim's experience with gender dysphoria. And while I have talked about Kim's music before, I haven't really had the chance to really address that element of her identity, which is clearly something that's important to her on a personal level, but it's not something she makes super central to a lot of her songwriting, or at least the way she wants to present herself as a pop star. But the writing on this song brings in elements of brutalist architecture, mentioning Kim's father's background as an architect, bringing up this particular building that she liked a lot and would often see when riding on the way to psychiatry, which obviously would be where a lot of these feelings of gender identity would be getting addressed. But she also mentions having her hair cut during the psychiatry sessions and also brings up the building being bombed and bulldozed and torn down, getting knifed.

Clearly there is a parallel going on here in terms of having this unique standout thing being destroyed because it doesn't fit the norm. Again, not only is this track incredibly catchy, but it is passionately sung and I think one of Kim's best songs ever.

But then as we move on to the second half of the record, it is a little bit of a mixed bag. The song "Need for Speed" is a quality piece of infectious Y2K-era pop, but then "Jeep" is an attempt at an acoustic ballad that I think could still use some work. The autotune doesn't really truly fit the guitars. I'm not entirely sold on the eloping process being described in the songwriting, not really sold on how urgent and dire this relationship is. And there also is a pretty weak bridge on the track too, where Kim I think struggles to fill in these gaps, not just melodically but topically too, though I do love a good random Slipknot reference.

"101" or "One of One?" is an electro-banger where Kim is really celebrating her uniqueness, with not only some killer production but an awesome, industrial Trent Reznor-type twist at the finish. And while "Basketball," I do think has some endearing, silly elements to it, likening a relationship she's in to being in a game of basketball, all the parallels being drawn to three-pointers and the like are really kind of obvious, and could have been more interesting with the references, for sure.

"Bitch Ball Out" is a song that that is certainly heavy and visceral, but it's a track I could see people kinda going either way on, depending on whether or not you truly want to hear a 2012-era piece of trap-pop, because that's kinda what it is, and while I do think Kim does this sound justice, and this track is, in a vacuum, just as fun as anything that was dropped during that time period in a similar vein, that doesn't stop it from sounding dated. The landing here does get stuck, though.

I think she ekes out another quality ballad with "Korea." "Korea, Korea, Korea, Korea, Korea" – like, what a stupidly simple, but addictive and effective hook. And then the closing track, "Freak It," I am like well acclimated to at this point with it being a single from the record. Really kind of ends the album on a high note. It is of course like a freaky jam with some glamorous house vibes and some kind of stuttery Daft Punk type edits to boot that I like a lot.

But yeah, overall I did like Detour, and I think Kim is really moving in the right direction with this record. I see a lot of love and excitement over this album that I very much think is well deserved. While the album on the whole did not blow me away, I think Kim is getting closer to making the kind of music that I had always hoped she would make, or thought she could make.

But I do think there does need to be more effort put into not just operating in the various lanes of hyperpop-adjacent music, electropop, that she clearly fits in and feels comfortable in, but finding ways to define herself within that, if this is in fact, like, the direction she's going to continue to move in. Feeling a light 7 on this album.

Anthony Fantano. Kim Petras. Forever.