New Delhi, Sept. 10 -- It's impossible to hear King Princess groan "I'm a loser" on their ambitious third album and not think of Beck singing the same line in his canonical slacker anthem released more than three decades ago.

Although "Alone Again" is more of an angsty breakup song than an ode to sloth, the evocation of Beck's "Loser" is fitting for the 26-year-old born Mikaela Straus. In both Straus' guitar-driven pop music and her public persona, the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist exemplifies an offhanded irreverence that artists who aren't men rarely afford.

Unlike their previous album, "Hold On Baby," which veered into a solemnity so full of ballads that it sometimes felt in conflict with Straus' playfulness and snark,...