So…Natalia Kills is back apparently. WHOOPS! Sorry girl. Still love you. “Controversy” is the first BUZZ track off her forthcoming sophomore record, Trouble, due out sometime next year on Cherrytree/Interscope. Trouble will serve as the HIGHLY anticipated follow up to Kills’ 2011 debut, Perfectionist which featured such amazing songs as “Wonderland,” “Zombie,” “Activate My Heart,” “Kill My Boyfriend” and her biggest hit-to-date, “Mirrors,” which landed in the Top 10 in both Germany and Austria and hit #3 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play charts, thanks to a seriously flaw-free remix package. According to Kills, her new Jeff Bhasker (Lana Del Rey, Kanye West) produced single, “Controversy” isn’t so much of a song as it is “a list of everything messed up with my generation and the images we would see on a daily basis growing up.” Check out the controversial song and accompanying visual BELOW.
I’ve always been a fan of Natalia Kills‘ unique pop perspective and “Controversy” doesn’t sway me one bit. She’s nothing if not HONEST and BOLD and “Controversy” is both of those of things. In the song, Kills doesn’t really do any singing, choosing instead to speak and scream instead. Hey, it helps get the point across better that way. It also keeps things interesting and primes fans for new material. The clip also keeps things interesting, featuring a seductive Natalia front and center, demurely turning from side to side while the song plays in the background. Various 90s TV/Pop culture images are projected onto her silhouette with action shots of Kills dancing, jumping on a trampoline, cuddling and SPANKING a big cuddly stuffed animal while wearing pink PJs, interspersed throughout.
Not much is really known about Trouble other than the fact that Jeff Bhasker produced all of it. Kills has started opening up a bit about it in a series of interviews including one with Phoenix Magazine in which she talks about her three favorite album tracks: “Problem,” which she wrote when she realized “what a delicious nightmare I can be!,” “Saturday Night,” which she calls the “best song on the album” and the album’s introduction, “Controversy.” Admittedly, one of the things that I admire about Natalia Kills is her perfectionist ways and her take control kind of attitude. The fact that she had her hands on so many elements of the creative process last time around was INSPIRING. This time, however, it seems like Kills is more focused on the music. In her Phoenix interview, Kills talks about sharing those creative reigns with others, saying “I’d like to work with some genius who can project their own interpretation of me upon the world, and I’d just be the muse.” As admirable as it is to take on EVERY single detail, I happen to think it’s equally admirable to relinquish some of that control.
Stay tuned for more news on “Trouble” coming soon. In the meantime, check out “Controversy” BELOW and read my INTERVIEW with Natalia Kills from 2010.
