Balwako’s new single, “Bitch Please,” doesn’t so much arrive as detonate – a burst of queer dark-pop that rattles the windows of expectation. This Amsterdam artist, trailing a “Slavic boy-core aesthetic” and a flair for the theatrical, isn’t just making electro-pop; he’s staging a minor opera in under three minutes, all bass-heavy beats and a synth line that feels like a velvet curtain dramatically swishing open.
And the core of it? A spectacularly messy devotion. We’re in the territory of overwhelming infatuation, that all-consuming fire where one might willingly, say, offer to meticulously catalogue someone’s sock drawer by perceived emotional weight if they only glanced approvingly. Balwako maps this almost complete surrender of self, this fervent desire to cater. For a fleeting second, listening, I wasn’t thinking of pop music, but of those strangely stoic faces on ancient kouros statues – a kind of perfect, unsettling offering. Then the glossy production thunders back in, a decidedly modern, danceable tremor.
“Bitch Please” is a cheeky, defiant anthem plunging into that chaotic collision of lust, a magnificently bruised ego, and the shards of heartbreak – particularly when pining for someone who simply won’t, or can’t, give you what you need. It’s a track for anyone who’s ever had to show up, head high, lipstick perfect, while their insides were staging a riot. This isn’t just pain; it’s pain remixed into a performance, dramatic and emotionally raw, where the cinematic synths light up the ego’s defiant strut.
Balwako carves out a fierce, unapologetic space here. It’s pop with a decidedly sharp bite, a track that makes you want to move, to pose, perhaps even to send a rather ill-advised text. It’s a bold offering, this intense, unique, and provocatively subservient desire set to music. After the last beat fades, you’re left wondering: when we lay ourselves so extravagantly bare, are we seeking connection, or just the most stylish form of self-immolation?
