Kim Petras Shares New Single “Jeep”: Listen

When I say the words “Kim Petras ballad,” what pops into your head? It might cause a quick little internal cringe. Petras, the trailblazing trans pop artist, made her name by making aggressively horny club music, and that’s mostly what she’s been doing ever since she split with Republic and struck out on her own. On recent singles like “Need For Speed,” Petras has steered hard into hyperpop, working with peers like Frost Children. But that’s not what she does on her new single “Jeep.” Instead, this is a Kim Petras ballad, and it’s way, way better than whatever you might’ve imagined.

“Jeep” is a lightly country-ish acoustic guitar song, but it’s a lightly country-ish acoustic guitar song in the same sense as Madonna’s “Don’t Tell Me.” Even before the clubby drums inevitably come in, the guitar gets glitched all to hell in some really cool ways. Petras uses heavy Auto-Tune to sing about sex with an ex: “We got history, and history repeats.” On singsong spoken-word outro, Petras takes a relatively wholesome song into some funny places: “We can just drive around! Listen to teccccchno! Listen to Emmmmminem! Listen to Sliiiiipknot! Sex in the parking lot, gas station! Maybe you can buy a new shirt there, too!”

You know who worked on this song? Porches. Petras co-wrote and co-produced Jeep with Porches., as well as her regular producer Nightfeelings and Dorian Electra collaborator Eric Cross. Leonie Miller-Aichholz directed the video, and Petras looks super-glamorous even though it doesn’t take place in the CGI wonderland that she often inhabits. Check it out below.

“Jeep” is out now on BunHead/Amigo.