Poppy‘s evolution from a viral YouTuber to a genre bending artist has been quite rapid. Poppy started off her career by making satirical videos on YouTube and identifying with the typical “bubblegum pop star.” Slowly, her content went from stating her name over and over for ten minutes to showing her singing chops. As her videos get “darker” as did her music.
“I Disagree” opens with Concrete, a song about wanting to kill off her older image. It is in the nu-metal style with whispers that can be heard muttering the words “bury me six feet deep.” Poppy has now shed her prior bubblegum pop exterior and her lyrics further reinstate that.
Her album heavily focuses on the themes of vengeance, rebirth after death and freedom.
Stand Outs:
I Disagree at the very beginning sounded like it was going to be similar to an FKA Twigs song, but it immediately turned to its own sound. It still has a glimpse of “pop” with tints of heavy metal. Poppy’s lyrics are very repetitive, especially on this track. “BlOODMONEY” and “Fill in the Crown” sounded like something that Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson would drop. It has its hard riffs and bass drops, while carrying that rage that Poppy has fully adopted into her new sound.
“Anything Like Me” is dripping in sincere anger. She switches from raspy whispers to screams. Its clear that there has been some restrained tension held by Poppy, maybe some towards the recent controversy with her past management or towards older drama with Mars Argo.
Overview:
This album is vastly different from her previous work, and that is clearly what she wanted to accomplish. This album changes her former persona. Poppy is more than her character on YouTube and she states it several times in “I Disagree.” She’s genre bending, experimental, and ever changing. It is a journey towards her newly found freedom from Titanic Sinclair. This is a reboot for the previously robotic Poppy.
Overall, the album was enjoyable. Not extremely deep in terms of lyrics but not everything has to be emotionally full of depth. There’s loads of repetition, a similar sound throughout the album but its cohesive. Its worth a shot to see what Poppy is up to now a days.
