Prima Queen The Prize
Prima Queen's The Prize arrives as a lucid, diary-like collection that translates heartbreak, friendship and wry self-affirmation into immediate pop hooks and textured electronica. Across five professional reviews the record earned a 71/100 consensus score, and critics repeatedly point to songs such as “Mexico”, “The Prize” and “Math Equation” as its emotional and melodic centers. Those best tracks balance intimacy and distance - harmonised vocals and storytelling that turn personal hindsight into communal catharsis.
Professional reviews praise the album's diaristic lyricism and tonal variety, noting how simmering reflection sits beside dance-pop propulsion. Reviewers consistently highlight the album's strengths in harmonies and vocal connection, moments of bittersweet irony, and moments of pure, buoyant release - from the nostalgic bloom of “Mexico” to the sarcastic, self-affirming thrust of “The Prize” and the dry-witted pop of “Math Equation”. Critics also single out quieter cuts like “Amnesia” and “Clickbait (Intro)” for their evocative intimacy, while the record's ambient sweep and occasional nu-disco bounce reveal a duo comfortable shifting tone.
Not all responses are unanimous: some reviews emphasize polished instrumentation and cohesion, while one reviewer registered reservations about certain sunnier moments feeling overly saccharine. Yet the critical consensus suggests The Prize is worth listening to for its standout songs and storytelling craft. Below, the detailed reviews unpack how Prima Queen turn failed and fleeting relationships into songs that linger long after the final refrain.
Critics' Top Tracks
The standout songs that made critics take notice
Good Riddance
1 mention
"she manages a perky as well as gorgeously floaty, cathartic, if still bittersweet final track - Good Riddance"— Song Bar
Math Equation
1 mention
"On Math Equation, for example: "You said I needed my own friends / So I found them / Then you fucked them.""— Song Bar
Amnesia
1 mention
"the more downbeat but rather beautifully sung opener Amnesia: "I’m an aperture /Of deleterious radicals / I know I tried / To reverse the damage.""— Song Bar
she manages a perky as well as gorgeously floaty, cathartic, if still bittersweet final track - Good Riddance
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Clickbait (Intro)
Mexico
The Prize
Oats (Ain't Gonna Beg)
Ugly
Flying Ant Day
Meryl Streep
Spaceship
Fool
Woman and Child
Sunshine Song
More Credit
What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 6 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
In a warm, candid tone that borders on confessional, Prima Queen make The Prize feel like a shared diary of healing, with the title track “The Prize” and fan-favourite “Mexico” standing out as the record's emotional centres. The reviewer frames the album as an exploration of empowerment and friendship, praising tracks like “Oats (Ain't Gonna Beg)” for placing self-worth front and centre while songs such as “Flying Ant Day” capture moments of pure happiness. It reads like a coming-of-age conversation, earnest and celebratory, which answers the question of the best songs on The Prize by pointing to those that balance vulnerability with buoyant alt-pop hooks. Overall, the reviewer emphasises how these best tracks turn private feeling into communal reassurance, making them the standout moments on the album.
Key Points
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The title track “The Prize” is best for embodying the album’s empowerment and friendship themes.
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The album’s core strengths are candid vulnerability, emotional arc from hurting to healing, and buoyant alt-pop songwriting.
Themes
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So
Critic's Take
Austra's Chin Up Buttercup is a bruised but buoyant record that makes its best case with songs like “Math Equation” and “Good Riddance” - Katie Stelmanis layers richly textured vocals over ecstatic, Madonna-like electronica while skewering heartbreak with dry wit. The reviewer's voice lingers on the clever lines and punchy melodies, celebrating how the title track's sarcasm and the bittersweet calm of “Good Riddance” turn devastation into catharsis. Equally notable are the tender opener “Amnesia” and the ambient sweep of “The Hopefulness of the Dawn”, which together show the album's range from dance-floor anthems to floating, elegiac endings.
Key Points
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Good Riddance stands out as the cathartic, floaty finale that turns heartbreak into consoling release.
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The album's core strength is its fusion of upbeat electronica and mordant, witty lyrics that make heartbreak feel energizing.
Themes
Critic's Take
On The Prize, Prima Queen turn personal history into pop songs that register as both immediate and quietly rueful. The review revels in the record's best tracks - “Ugly”, “Mexico” and “More Credit” - which respectively marry volatile guitar hooks, big riffs and melancholic acoustic drift to themes of fleeting relationships and hindsight. The pair's knack for shifting tone, from nu-disco bounce on “Fool” to Kim Gordon-esque detachment on “Oats (Ain't Gonna Beg)”, makes the best songs on The Prize feel like intimate snapshots rather than pastiche. Ultimately the album's strengths lie in its candid lyricism and the duo's harmonised navigation of peaks and troughs, leaving those standout tracks lingering after the last refrain.
Key Points
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The best song is best because it pairs vivid, volatile guitar hooks with candid lyrics about fickle relationships.
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The album's core strengths are tonal variety and candid lyricism that render personal history into resonant pop snapshots.
Themes
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Critic's Take
The best songs on The Prize are the ones that crystallise Prima Queen's singular voice: “The Prize” and “Spaceship” stand out as moments of unabashed honesty and melodic reward. Dale Maplethorpe writes in a warm, admiring tone that highlights the duo's harmonies and storytelling, praising “The Prize” as a glorious, self-affirming tune and calling “Spaceship” one of the album's most brutally honest tracks. The record's strengths - cohesive instrumentation, killer guitar work and the singers' uncanny unity - make those top tracks feel like the clearest answers to what are the best tracks on The Prize.
Key Points
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The Prize is best when harmonies, lyricism and melody converge, exemplified by “The Prize” and “Spaceship”.
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The album's core strengths are its cohesive instrumentation, killer guitar moments and the uncanny vocal connection between the two singers.
Themes
Critic's Take
Having been best friends for the better part of a decade now, Prima Queen make The Prize feel tangibly tender and intimate, and the best tracks underline that warmth. The opener “Clickbait (Intro)” establishes a dream-like quality that carries through the album, while “Mexico” and the sparkling title track “The Prize” bloom into life with evocative, nostalgic choruses. Moments like “Flying Ant Day” and “Spaceship” supply woozy, frank admissions that tug on the heartstrings, even if sunnier cuts such as “Sunshine Song” lean a little too sugary. Overall, the best songs on The Prize are those that balance diaristic detail with warm melodies, notably “Clickbait (Intro)”, “Mexico” and “The Prize”.
Key Points
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The opener “Clickbait (Intro)” best sets the album's dream-like, intimate tone.
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The album's core strengths are diaristic lyricism and warm, nostalgic melodies centered on female friendship.