"She's made the jump from bizarre YouTube content creator to one ...

Over the last decade, Poppy has made the jump from bizarre YouTube content creator to avant-garde pop provocateur, to one of the brightest rising stars in metal, even landing herself a Metal Hammer cover. As the singer, real name Moriah Rose Pereira, prepares to release her excellent new record, Negative Spaces, we dive into her rollercoaster run of full-length studio albums so far.

Poppy introduced herself in 2014 when she started posting surreal, disturbing videos to YouTube as an android-like character who conversed with sentient plants and mannequins, watched by an audience of millions. Her debut album, 2017’s Poppy.Computer, was written and released to further that online persona and while the weird, bubblegum pop of Moshi Moshi and I’m Poppy, with its 8-bit videogame sound effects, show flashes of the I’ll-do-what-the-hell-I-want experimentalism that has defined her whole career, it has little in common with the music she is making today. As such, the album often feels synthetic; the product of Poppy The Character, rather than Poppy The Artist.

Poppy’s second album saw her distancing herself from her robotic YouTube persona. As a result, Am I A Girl? feels more authentic, while the album’s vast range, from shimmering electro-pop to crashing metal, feels more reflective of her personal tastes. Darker and more polished than her debut, the pop moments are killer - the off-kilter chorus of Girls In Bikinis and Diplo-produced Time’s Up are standouts, but the heavy tracks that round off the album are the most interesting. X and Play Destroy, a collab with electro-producer Grimes, with their loud bursts of metal, provide a hint of where Poppy would go with future records.

After flirting with heavier sounds on Am I A Girl?, I Disagree was the album that put Poppy firmly on the radar of the metal community. An LP that revelled in unabashed, glorious chaos in a clash of hyperpop and serrated riffs, it veered between sweet and sour, violent metal, disturbing imagery and cutesy melodies on Bloodmoney and Sit/Stay. Meanwhile, lead single, Concrete, comes across like Babymetal on an acid trip. I Disagree was the album where Poppy established herself as true genre-agnostic, an artist following her own single-minded vision. Brilliant and addictive.

After the heaviness and intense chaos of 2020’s excellent I Disagree, it felt like Poppy was finally settling into her groove, only for her to simmer down on 2021’s Flux. In many ways, this is Poppy’s most cohesive album, focusing on grungy tones, Garbage-esque garage rock and shoegazy textures on Lessen The Damage and On The Level. When they do come, as on the biting Never Find My Place, the bursts of metallic fury are thoughtful and well-measured. This is record stacked with excellent tracks, but if there’s one criticism to be made it’s that Flux lacks that trademark zany, forward-thinking spark present elsewhere in Poppy’s discography.

After positioning herself as rock and metal’s next breakout star on 2020’s I Disagree and 2021’s Flux, her next move was to volte-face with a collection of throbbing electronic bangers. From the dark pop of Motorbike, the HEALTH-esque aggression of Church Outfit and nu-metal-meets-industrial title track, these tracks were born out Poppy’s desire to create music videos that utilised the dance training of her youth. Zig is proof you can never predict where Poppy will go next.

Danniii Leivers writes for Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, The Guardian, NME, Alternative Press, Rock Sound, The Line Of Best Fit and more. She loves the 90s, and is happy where the sea is bluest.

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