Negative Spaces - Poppy
Poppy is quite an interesting artist considering she got her beginnings in pop music and making surreal performance art YouTube videos during the later “Golden Age” of the internet. It’s not often you see an artist in her sphere make such a massive leap from Pop to Metal, let alone something as heavy as Negative Spaces. An argument could be made though that she has been preparing for this for years, with many of her releases over the years drawing inspiration from Punk, Nu-Metal, and Industrial genres (as early as her second album, Am I a Girl in 2018"). Negative Spaces manages to establish what sounds like the “final form” of Poppy as an artist, and where she has been heading all these years - a blend of Bubblegum Pop and Metalcore that is both sweet and venomous. Many tracks are reminiscent of recent Bring Me The Horizon releases, which is clear when you realize that Jordan Fish served as the producer and one of the writers of Negative Spaces. If the name looks familiar, it’s because Jordan was the keyboardist and producer for Bring Me The Horizon from 2012-2023, helping shape their sound into a similar blend of Metalcore with Pop leanings that worked much better for Oli Sykes's vocal range after struggles from their early days as a Deathcore band. While listening to Poppy on this record, you can hear some of that leftover mindset that Jordan must have had when he was writing for Oli, because many of the vocal inflections and progressions sound like something you’d hear from him.
Jordan and Poppy did an fantastic job structuring this record, with an incredibly catchy and heavy song to kick things off (“have you had enough?”), a brutal Hardcore track in the middle (“the center’s falling out”), and an earnest Pop ballad to end the whole thing. In between all of this are tracks that bounce from Metalcore to Industrial/Nu-Metal to Pop, keeping you on your toes the entire time. Sometimes the transition happens within a track, where you think it’s going to be a standard modern Pop song, only for it to transition into a Metalcore anthem (“new way out”, “the cost of giving up”, “push go” all come to mind). This methodical structuring allows you to move between heavy tracks that make you feel like your face will melt, with a sweet Pop break to cleanse the palate (but not too much since we’re talking about a Metal record here!). Everything was meticulously planned to keep you from guessing what’s coming next. Additionally, the production and instrumentation of the record are fantastic. Jordan Fish (production and instrumentation on all tracks), Zakk Cervini (mixing/mastering), and Ralph Granter (drums on the majority of the tracks) outdid themselves, helping Poppy create a great-sounding Metal record that can hang with the big players of the genre.
Negative Spaces is filled with countless songs that should be in the spotlight, but here are tracks that not only won’t leave my head but represent the album best. As I mentioned above, “have you had enough” is catchy, heavy, and one hell of a way to start an album. The song perfectly blends Pop, Metalcore, and Industrial genres and Poppy gives us a taste of her vocal range, from the sweet-like-honey Pop vocals to the shrill, high screams in the bridge. The song expertly sets the stage for what’s to come. “they’re all around us” is a high-speed, ferocious Hardcore/Pop track with Ralph Granter blasting away on the drums and Poppy exploring her entire vocal range of clean vocals, guttural growls, and sandpaper-like high screams. “nothing” is yet another track that gets your attention and effortlessly slides back and forth between the light and dark sounds explored thus far. The breakdown is especially “nasty” too! “the center’s falling out’ is probably my favorite track on the album. It’s relentless and demands you hold on to something for dear life in fear of getting blown away, with Poppy absolutely eviscerating the track in the best way possible. This track is where we really hear her go full-tilt and leave nothing on the table, proving any naysayers wrong and cementing her as a heavy vocal great. The song starts with a fast-paced drum pattern reminiscent of Slipknot, transitioning into a standard Hardcore/Punk pattern before everything slows down and gets nice and sludgy. The whole team is firing on all cylinders with the writing on “the center’s falling out”, and it’s a song I’ll definitely be adding to my workout playlists. “new way out” is the final song I’ll specifically call out, which sees Poppy and Co. continue their blend of Pop/Metalcore with another catchy song that won’t leave your head. The chorus is infectious and enjoyable, with the rest of the song grabbing you and shaking you awake with Poppy’s effortless screaming and Jordan’s masterful guitar work.
If anyone doubts that a pop musician can make the jump and bring the heat in the Metal genre, they should listen to this record. Poppy defies expectations and delivers one of the best, purposeful, badass Metalcore albums of the year, even with tracks like “negative spaces” (the title track that sounds a bit like Hillary Duff, which my wife hilariously pointed out, leading me to now refer to this record as “Duffcore”), “crystallized” (a Dance-Pop track), and “push go” (another Dance-Pop anthem song that sounds like it could have come out in the late 80s/early 90s, but with a modern Metal twist). This record propels Poppy into a new league of female Metal vocalists, most notably Courtney of Spiritbox, Tatiana of Jinjer, and Morgan of Kittie. I can’t wait to see what she does next!