Originally planned to be her debut studio album, it faced multiple delays and was initially cancelled in 2022 in favour of Feed the Beast (2023).

[2][3] The album mainly explores themes of love and sex, heavily rooted on the premise of escapism, as the singer conceived the project during the COVID-19 lockdown.

[4] Petras described the music as "very European" and "front to back pop", also experimenting with disco, French house and German techno for the songs.

[5][6] The singles "Future Starts Now" and "Coconuts" were released in 2021 to promote Problématique; following its initial cancellation, the latter was included on Feed the Beast, while the former was ultimately scrapped from the album's final tracklist.

[11] In late 2021, Hilton Dresden of Paper wrote, "But this year alone, amidst a raging pandemic, has seen [Petras] complete an 18-track album — her longest and, based on our conversation, the pop star's favorite body of work ever.

[12]According to Atwood Magazine's Julia Dzurillay, the album's title is "a nod to her French-inspired lyrics that also poked fun at her 'problematic' work relationship with producer Dr. Luke".

[14][15] In August 2021,[16] Petras released "Future Starts Now" as a lead single for her upcoming album, along with a French-themed music video.

All I wanted to do was to escape, so I made Problématique, which was this super Euro-pop, gay pop explosion, which I adore and love and I worked very hard on and am very proud of.

[23] In a positive review, Robin Murray from Clash classified Problématique as "ridiculously entertaining" and a "perfect kiss off to [our] collective summer", praising most of the songs, while being more critical of some others, such as "Treat Me Like a Ho".

[26] Writing for DIY, Otis Robinson called the album a "course-correction" for Petras and stated that her "clubby hooks remains ecstatic", but thought the project felt "chained to its history without a proper roll-out".

[27] Following the initial scrapping of the album, Harry Brocklehurst of The Tab wrote, "Problematique getting shelved is a horrific loss to the pop universe, and I will never forgive Kim's label for doing this era the injustice that it has.