Perfectionist

Perfectionist
Studio album by Natalia Kills
Publication (s)	April 1, 2011
admission	2009-2011
Label (s)	will.i.am , Streamline, Kon Live , Interscope , Cherrytree
Genre (s)	Pop , electropop , synthpop , dark pop
Title (number)	14th
running time	50:21 (deluxe version: 58:35)
occupation	Natalia kills
production	Natalia Kills, Akon , Jeff Bhasker , Theron Feemster , Fernando Garibay , will.i.am , Martin Kierszenbaum
chronology Womannequin (2008) Perfectionist Trouble (2013)
Single releases December 21, 2009 zombie August 10, 2010 Mirrors April 4, 2011 Wonderland June 28, 2011 Free January 10, 2012 Kill My Boyfriend

Perfectionist is the debut album by British singer Natalia Kills . It was released on April 1st, 2011 in Germany by their music label Cherrytree Records.

background

Kill began work on her debut album shortly after signing a deal with will.i.am's label Will.i.am Music Group , who also served as executive producer for the album. The contract came about when the blogger Perez Hilton published a demo of her on his website and Natalia Kills, then still active under the stage name Natalia Cappuccini, then collected several million views on her Myspace page. She was invited to Los Angeles, where will.i.am herself signed her. With the signing of the contract came the name change. Although Perfectionist was actually her debut album, she had previously self-published the online EP Womannequin .

Kills worked on her album with experienced producers such as Fernando Garibay , Martin Kierszenbaum and Theron Feemster . It was also Akon co-producer of mirrors . Jeff Bhasker worked as a sound engineer and songwriter. Most of the songs were recorded at Cherrytree Recording Studios and Enormous Studios (Bhasker's home studio). Exceptions are Break You Hard and Superficial , which was produced in American Dream. Wonderland partly there, but also in The Hive. Kills also recorded Love Is a Suicide and Broke at Paradise Studios, Mirrors at Chalice Recording Studios, and If I Was God at The Boom Boom Room.

The album was released on April 1, 2011 and initially only in the German-speaking countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where it should also celebrate its highest chart success, via Universal Music . In her adopted home, the United States, it was released on August 16, and in the United Kingdom over a month later, on September 19.

Single releases

The first single, Zombie , was released on September 21, 2009 and was supposed to arouse suspense on the album. But the work on the album took longer. The corresponding video did not appear until March 16 of the following year. The second single Activate My Heart was not added to the album.

On August 10, 2010, another single from the album, Mirrors, was released. This was the main single and reached various chart positions, especially in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The fourth single was released on June 24, 2011, a remix of the song Free , which was created with will.i.am as a guest rapper.

In addition to the singles, a web series called Love, Kills xx was started with a total of eight approximately five-minute episodes, directed by Natalia Kills herself and Guillaume Doubet. Kills as the protagonist experiences hair-raising scenes in which she threatens a man with a revolver or argues with her boyfriend with a baseball bat. These videos appeared on Vevo and YouTube . The artist also toured Europe and North America.

Music and concept

Perfectionist is intended as a concept album about perfectionism. Kills sees herself as a perfectionist and is convinced that everyone strives for perfection in their own way. With this album she tries to depict the conflict between her own dreams and reality. Another main source of inspiration is the predominantly female fixation on fashion. The lyrics are intentionally opinionated and confrontational. Kills uses comic traits and many metaphors.

“It's definitely a concept album: all the songs revolve around my ambition, celebrations, frustration and disappointments of being a perfectionist. I think we're all perfectionists - we're all looking for the best to fulfill our ideologies and dreams. "

“It is undoubtedly a concept album: all of the songs relate to my ambition, my joy, my frustrations and disappointments that result from seeing myself as a perfectionist. I think we are all perfectionists - we try to make all of our ideologies and dreams come true. "

- Natalia Killy : Digital Spy

She describes the style of her album as "Dark Pop". However, this primarily affects the lyrics, which she herself compares with Alanis Morissette and Kate Bush . They are about failed relationships, giving up and giving up, as well as striving for perfection in any form. But also about personal problems and wrong decisions that can also make us stronger.

Even if she likes to compare herself to Morrissette, Bush and Fever Ray and see them as role models, her music is much simpler. It is suitable for clubs and moves mainly in synth pop with various harder hip-hop beats. They used many elements that already by artists like Kesha , Rihanna and Nelly Furtado are known, such as Auto-Tune and electro-R & B .

Her style is usually compared to Lady Gaga , especially since her production team had also worked with this artist and so the sound is pretty similar. But it is also compared with various artists for whom it has already opened, for example with Ke $ ha, Kelis , Robyn and Katy Perry .

Track list

The playlist was announced on August 12, 2010. The official track listing was announced by Amazon on March 12, 2011 .

#	title	Songwriter	Producers	length
1.	Perfection	Natalia kills	Martin "Cherry Cherry Boom Boom Kierszenbaum"	0:32
2.	Wonderland	Natalia Kills, Michael Warren	"The Ron" Feemster	3:11
3.	Free	Natalia Kills, Jeff Bhasker, Scott Mescudi, Dion Wilson	Jeff Bhasker (& Dion 'No ID' Wilson )	3:57
4th	Break you hard	Natalia Kills, "The Ron" Feemster	"The Ron" Feemster	4:22
5.	zombie	Natalia Kills, Jeff Bhasker	Jeff Bhasker	3:19
6th	Love is a suicide	Natalia Kills, Fernando Garibay, Michael Warren	Fernando Garibay	3:57
7th	Mirrors	Natalia Kills, Martin Kierszenbaum, Akon, Giorgio Tuinfort	Akon, Martin "Cherry Cherry Boom Boom" Kierszenbaum, Giorgio Tuinfort	3:16
8th.	Not in love	Natalia Kills, Martin Kierszenbaum	Martin "Cherry Cherry Boom Boom" Kierszenbaum	3:23
9.	Acid Annie	Natalia Kills, Martin Kierszenbaum	Martin "Cherry Cherry Boom Boom" Kierszenbaum	3:37
10.	Superficial	Natalia Kills, "The Ron" Feemster	"The Ron" Feemster	3:17
11.	Broke	Natalia Kills, Fernando Garibay, Michael Warren	Fernando Garibay	4:08
12.	Heaven	Natalia Kills, Jeff Bhasker	Jeff Bhasker	4:49
13.	Nothing Lasts Forever	Natalia Kills, Jeff Bhasker	Jeff Bhasker	3:30
14th	If I Was God	Natalia Kills, "The Ron" Feemster	"The Ron" Feemster	4:43

Bonus material

iTunes bonus tracks

#	title	Songwriter	Producers	length
15th	Mirrors (Live at the Cherrytree House)	Natalia kills	Kills, Akon, Cherry Cherry Boom Boom, Giorgio Tuinfort	3:45
16.	Zombie (Kleerup Remix)	Natalia kills	Kills, Jeff Bhasker	4:03
17th	Mirrors (Tonka Dynamix)	Natalia kills	Kills, Akon, Cherry Cherry Boom Boom, Giorgio Tuinfort	5:41
18th	Mirrors (Live at the Cherrytree House) (Video)	Natalia kills	Kills, Akon, Cherry Cherry Boom Boom, Giorgio Tuinfort	3:45

Cover illustration

The album cover shows Natalia Kills in black clothing against a gray background. There is a red stripe on her face with the album title "Perfectionist" written on it in white. The album cover is an allusion to concept artist Barbara Kruger .

reception

The album received mostly negative reviews. It would be too intentional and, in contrast to her early work as a rapper Verbalicious, aims at an oversaturated mainstream pop market. Above all, the lack of demarcation to other artists of similar genres and the associated arbitrariness were criticized. From time to time a certain independence would be recognizable, since she mostly writes her songs herself and a few of the songs, like Zombie, are quite unusual, but this would be the exception. Mara Weckler from Laut.de wrote :

“The question remains whether that will be sufficient for long-term success. Natalia Kills may write her own songs, have a nice voice and a lot of sex appeal and extravagance. Above all, she lacks self-irony for the coolness of a Lady Gaga. "

- Mara Weckler : Laut.de

Charts

The song Mirrors was released on August 10, 2010 as the first single from the album, which reached the top ten in the German charts. On April 4, 2011 Wonderland will be released as a second single. The album reached the top 50 of the German album charts and number 134 on the Billboard 200 . In her home country Great Britain, the album was released very late and missed the charts. Overall, the album fell short of expectations, especially in the United States, where it barely sold 14,000 copies.

album

year	title	Chart placement
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2011	Perfectionist	50	35	94	-	134

Single releases

year	title	Chart positions					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2010	Mirrors	10	7th	52	-	-	First published: August 10, 2010
2011	Wonderland	45	55	-	-	-	First published: April 4, 2011
	Free	15th	4th	-	-	-	First published: June 28, 2011
2012	Kill My Boyfriend	-	-	-	-	-	First published: January 10, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ↑ amazon.de
2. ↑ twitter.com
3. ↑ universalmusic.pl
4. ↑ Natalia Kills at laut.de
5. ↑ The Perfectionist. Discogs , accessed August 30, 2016 . 
6. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources singles: DE , AT , CH
7. ↑ Love, Kills xx in the Internet Movie Database (English)
8. ↑ NataliaKIllsVEVO: Natalia Kills - Love, Kills xx - Episode 1. YouTube , April 28, 2010, accessed on August 30, 2016 . 
9. ^ ^{A b c} Robert Copsey: Natalia Kills. We talk GaGa, Xtina and will.i.am in our exclusive interview with the rising star. Digital Spy , April 20, 2011, accessed August 30, 2016 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b} Jon Chattman: On the Rise: The Experience Natalia Kills. The Huffington Post , October 26, 2011, accessed August 30, 2016 . 
11. ↑ ^{a b c} AllMusic Review by Jon O'Brien at Allmusic (English). Retrieved August 30, 2016.
12. ↑ pagesix.com/ Kills announces debut album 'The Perfectionist' track-list - PopWrap
13. ↑ amazon.de ( Memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
14. ↑ Blair Kelly: Natalia Kills - Perfectionist. Musicomh.com, November 19, 2011, accessed August 30, 2016 . 
15. ↑ Mara Wecker: laut.de criticism: Very deeply in the hype machinery. laut.de , accessed on August 30, 2016 . 
16. ↑ Jason Lipshutz: Natalia Kills Gets Real on 'Trouble' Album: 'I Wanted To Confront Who I Am Head-On'. Billboard , August 8, 2013, accessed August 30, 2016 . 
17. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources albums: DE , AT , CH , US , UK