POPPY : "Negative Spaces"

 I like that I  can click play on Poppy's new album with no clue what kind of music I will get. The opening track blends the two polarities I suspect might possess this album given the collaborations she has had this year. About as industrial as In This Moment, and still has sugary hooks, as well as her screaming, which I think she legitimized in her duet with Knocked Loose. There are still traces of rock drive in the second song that moves more like slick pop on the verse. It is a little more formulaic than her previous forays into this kind of thing, maybe she is dialing back the weird a little to be more palatable to the rock festival stages she is gracing. She still hits harder than Sleep Token. 

With experience and time on the road, she grew in her abilities as both a screamer and singer.  Jordan Fish of Bring Me the Horizon produced her new album. He did better with some of the more pop sounds than expected"Crystallized" is a good example. Though ''Vital" feels a little more homogenized, it could use a more experimental touch that marked her other work. We are not six albums into her career, so the sound is now perhaps streamlined in a manner that conforms to the mainstream too much. "Push go" finds a better balance though it's not far removed from what Olivia Rodrigo already does. I like the subtle use of the more exotic scales that sneak into her melody as it progresses making it one of the album's best songs. 

"Nothing" is back to more aggressive elements swinging the stylistic pendulum in a manner that plays to her strengths. The chorus sounds like it could be an anime soundtrack which works for her brand. Halfway into the album, I realized there are 15 songs, which is a lot, so there is more margin for error I suppose than if she went for 9 or 10. Not every heavy moment is the best, as "The Center is Falling Out' could use more hooks. There are also a few interludes, which I am not counting for the purpose of this review so realistically there are 12 songs. The title track is pretty strong even if it leans into more of a 90s pop punk feel. 

The power ballad 'Surviving on Defiance' works really well. It shows what she is still capable of even in this more commercial context. "New Way Out" is back to more of a nu-metal bounce. From looking at the production credits of the album, it is revealed there is not a band as much a trio of producers. I would be curious to see a making of the album to see if the guitar sounds are all sampled. I think there are many points on the album where there are distorted synth sounds, that are overdriven enough in post-production to create a guitar sound. Making this album less organic and more electronic than you might think Though Jordan Fish has enough basic guitar skills to pull off some of this.

The last song is more of a ballad that works well enough it kind of touches on some of the more whimsical sounds that have been heard on Grimes albums. Overall even with the more streamlined commercially viable direction this album works and I will give it a 9.5. Let's see how it grows on me from here.