The tender, ballad-like intro to King Princess’ new single “Change the Locks” doesn’t prepare listeners for the song’s emotional, explosive chorus, as she sings about the end of a relationship.
“So I guess it’s over/’Cause I’m hardly sober anymore/So I guess it’s over/I can hardly hold you anymore,” she sings. King Princess — a.k.a. Mikaela Straus — opened up about the track in her recent cover story with Rolling Stone. She said someone in the studio said it sounds menstruating at Lilith Fair. “I was like, ‘Cunt!’ That’s exactly what I’m going for!” Straus said. “It’s a journey.”
“Change the Locks,” off her upcoming album Hold on Baby, was co-written with the National’s Aaron Dessner at his home studio in upstate New York. “All I’ve ever really wanted was to feel camaraderie in making music, and I started to feel that,” Straus said.
“Change the Locks” follows the singles “Too Bad,” “Cursed,” “For My Friends,” and “Little Bother” with Fousheé. Hold On Baby is out July 29.