Last night (which happened to be Saturday) I was up late packing for Paris and had Natalia Kills’ latest pop offering on repeat. Kills and have have spoken briefly about her past and a lot of it came out in the interview we did together for Phoenix magazine last year. Saturday Night is the first track Kills has ever released as a single that truly touches upon this – it’s her most personal track to date. Tracks like If I Was God and Heaven are two other (non-single) personal tracks that are rooted in a similar ilk, but global visibility for both of these was limited. Saturday Night paints a narrative that visually surpasses everything that Kills has ever done before.
I’m hoping that this track is the one that helps win over the pop enthusiasts that have never quite understood what Natalia stands for. If you Google the words “Natalia Kills underrated”, you will stumble across countless comment posts, forum discussions and social media mentions that cement this. I don’t want to go into “why” she is underrated, but in short it stems from the era from which she launched which happened to be the same time as Gaga, on the same label and with a not so dissimilar visual aesthetic and sound. Her pop career debut as Natalia Kills also wasn’t aided by certain video interviews and more aptly, the hurtful commentary on these video interviews by certain respected journalists and bloggers that should have been more supportive considering the art itself was on parr with (if not better than) some of pop’s biggest names.
Kills has evolved, and this album is showing Natalia come into her own, telling us the story of her heritage and past and bringing it to life in line with the most beautiful vocal and instrumental production by Jeff Bhasker and lyrics that paint a picture that no music video could ever do justice.
Pills fall like diamonds from my purse / Right out the hole in my fur coat
Listen to the track below, but really listen to it.
https://soundcloud.com/dayfidh/sat