Natalia Kills can’t go wrong-whether it’s her music, her fashion sense or the visuals that are the backbone of everything she sings about. The dark pop princess has released a second studio album titled Trouble. What makes this album different from her debut album Perfectionist is that it concentrates more on Kills’ childhood and how it shaped her as a person she is today.

Kills has said in an interview with Marie Claire Magazine, that: “I feel like trouble has followed me from the day I was born. I have this awful riches-to-rags childhood story: When I was born, my family had a lot, but by the time I was 11, my dad had been accused of being a criminal and we were visiting him in jail. The police took everything—all the cars, all the houses.”

Kills has always been known for her uncensored mind, strong visuals and bold lyrics. But with her second album, she has decided to go to a much darker place and open up about her painful childhood. This honesty about where she’s coming from, helps us understand the first album even better.

So lets start analyzing Trouble track-by-track.

1.“Television” is an upbeat track about being madly in love, conflicting with the law and getting arrested. But, the song explains that all the bad stuff we do in real life is actually all we learned from the television. “So don't tell us that this ain't right. It's just like on the television…” This song also gives us a hint on Kills’ childhood, with lines: “Have never felt so warm, when your father's on the bottle and your mother's on the floor...
2.“Problem” is a very provocative track in which singer warns her lover that everything they say about her is true and that she really is a problem.
3.“Stop Me” has a Bonnie & Clyde feel to it. It is about two problematic lovers who are planning to escape the town and who can’t be stopped. The first paragraph explains where the need to “do some damage” comes from. “Father, father, what have you done, done, done, done? You made a monster and now I gotta run, run, run, run…”
4.“Boys Don’t Cry” is a track about not being able to get attached to someone. Getting too close to someone means exposing yourself to a possible heartbreak. Therefore, it is better to keep everything platonic.
5.“Daddy’s Girl” contains excerpts from Hall & Oats song “Rich Girl.” It is a track that concentrates on the girl’s unconditional love for a bad boy. But it also discreetly talks about past.

You messed up, yeah you messed up bad,
Rolled the dice on the life we had,
Played your tough guy game, you threw it all away...
(Money, money)
We had diamonds and we had pearls,
Champagne life like a daddy's girl,
But the risks you take ain't worth the price you pay...

6.“Saturday Night” tells us the story of Kills’ childhood. She became a “teenage tragedy” and a “broken girl,” as a result of all the bad experiences she had. It is about having to witness all the horrors of a broken family and still put your dancing shoes on and go out on a Saturday night and pretend like nothing happened. Because, just as the song says, “it’s just another Saturday night.”
7.In “Devils Don’t Fly” Kills shows a more vulnerable and darker side of herself. It is about getting the “chains,” while the other person got “wings.” The singer is asking the other person not to expect much from her, because “devils don’t fly.”
8.“Outta Time” is about asking other person to not try to save you, because it’s too late. As young our hearts are easily broken, but as we mature it is harder to do so.
9.“Controversy” deals with all the wrongs of the society. It is about deciding to follow or not to follow the leader (the malicious society).
10.“Rabbit Hole” is another provocative track that skillfully uses the metaphor of school and Alice in Wonderland to describe someone’s sexual drive.
11.“Watching You” might be Kills’ most honest and vulnerable love song. It is about brokenheartedly waiting on your lover’s lawn, refusing to believe that your love has shattered just like the broken frames in his garbage. The track shows how fragile Kills can be.
12.“Marlboro Lights” is a very emotional track about holding onto that little fragment of memory which is all that’s left from what you had with that special person. In this case Marlboro Lights.
13.“Trouble” ends the album on a positive note. It is about embracing yourself just as you are. Because in the end, you are the consequence of your experiences. The singer admits: ”It’s the only way I know. Oh…My daddy taught me so.”

Let me know what do you think of Kills’ new album!

In the meantime, check out her latest video for “Saturday Night.”

And her lyric video for “Outta Time.”

Image: Amazon