Have You Heard... King Princess' 'Girl Violence'?

Album Cover by Mikaela Straus (@kingprincess69 - IG), album cover reproduced in compliance with Aus Copyright Law

So far, one of the biggest perks that has come with the creation of this blog, has been finding new artists that I genuinely like. Prior to this album, I wasn’t familiar with King Princess at all, but after listening to her new release ‘Girl Violence’ multiple times, I think it’s safe-to-say that I’m a fan now. Released on the 12th of September, 2025, the album serves as King Princess (real name Mikaela Straus)’s third overall, revolving heavily around the heartbreak that comes with relationships breaking down and subsequently starting all over again.

Themes

This theming is made apparent right from the off-set, and carries through for the entirety of ‘Girl Violence’s’ 34-minute runtime. I thought Straus was super versatile in illustrating this theme too, with so many of the tracks featured here covering a different aspect of the stereotypical break-up process, albeit, with large doses of Straus’ personal experiences layered in as well. Tracks like ‘Covers,’ and ‘Slow Down and Shut Up’ highlight this point pretty clearly, as they both contain lyrics that directly link issues within her relationships to her career under the King Princess banner. Lyrics like “I’m around, in a different city, still sending you my love,” and “My suitcase makes you restless, the guitars are packed for tour” are pretty clear examples of this, as they both seem to refer directly to King Princess’ constant tour schedule. 

Production

Aside from Straus’ lyricism on the album, I thought the production on ‘Girl Violence’ was something else that really elevated the quality of the release. Straus herself, as well as, Jacob Portrait and Aire Atlantica serve as the predominant producers on this album, and I was super impressed with the way in which they went about incorporating so many different sounds. Organs, synths, guitars, strings; this album manages to juggle so many different elements on each track and they do so in a way that never comes across as over-production. ‘Origin’ serves as one standout, starting sparsely with a really mellow keyboard line, before slowly adding more elements as the track progresses.

Photo taken by Vince M Aung - Photo reproduced in compliance with Aus Copyright Law

These strings and synths are layered within the background to some of the later choruses and they just add so much depth to the track. There’s even these really cool distortion and reverb effects applied to Straus’ vocals that really make them cut through and resonate on this track in particular. Another highlight is the track ‘Covers,’ which features a really smooth combination of pop and indie-rock/alternative elements that make for one of my absolute favourites on ‘Girl Violence.’ The track begins with just some guitar, staying pretty sparse in the verses, before expanding in the choruses with the help of these really large synth walls. After hearing a super mid-western emo-sounding guitar throughout the intro and first verse, I was super surprised when it built to these big, pop-like choruses with big synths and lots of reverb. 

To start to wrap everything up, this was a super hard review to write. Trying to talk about an album that features so many different sounds and tones in under 600 words was tough. Despite this, however, I hope I’ve written enough to convince you guys to check out this album. As someone who came in with zero knowledge about King Princess, ‘Girl Violence’ proved to be a massively pleasant surprise and I can’t wait to do a bit more of a deep-dive on the other parts of her discography.