Budding trans pop star Kim Petras has been teasing something spooky for the past few weeks with cryptic photos, and now we know why: at midnight on October 1, she dropped a banging Halloween mixtape, Turn Off the Light, Vo1. 1.
The eight-track project is a departure for Petras, whose bright and bouncy escapist pop gets twisted on tracks like “Tell Me It’s a Nightmare,” “TRANSylvania” and the title track, which features none other than Halloween queen Elvira — yes, fucking Elvira! Turn Off the Light sounds like the soundtrack to a campy 80s horror film — Thriller from a femme perspective.
It’s darker and sexier than anything Petras has released, and also features her first time singing in German (her native language) on standout “In the Next Life,” giving Petras her “Scheiße” moment on a track that fuses her pop sensibility with pounding techno.
Petras — who is currently on tour with Troye Sivan — said about the mixtape that she loves to “get stoned and listen to it in full.” It’s a new side of Petras, whose music so far has been “very bright and bubblegum, which I love…but I love all kinds of music and I have different sides to me. And I just feel like this is the way that I’m showing people that I’m not just extremely sugary, even though it has it’s really sugary moments.” You can listen to the full album for free on Spotify.