Band:	Poppy
Album:	I Disagree
Style:	Electropop, Alternative metal
Release date:	January 10, 2020
A review by:	ScreamingSteelUS

01. Concrete
02. I Disagree
03. Bloodmoney
04. Anything Like Me
05. Fill The Crown
06. Nothing I Need
07. Sit/Stay
08. Bite Your Teeth
09. Sick Of The Sun
10. Dont Go Outside

I'm about as hip to current trends in pop music and internet culture as your average suburban father of two,* so (That) Poppy, who has two albums and a preestablished YouTube career that I have no intention of researching further, is a complete unknown to me. Radu tried to make me watch this video, which would seem to explain everything I'd need in the way of background, but aside from the fact that these days I don't have enough spare time to fill a thimble, I just don't really care even slightly and I'd rather stick my hands in a toaster than have to learn about some other thing that other people are paying attention to for whatever reason. Unfortunately for my schedule, it appears that Poppy's previous career is bursting with important artistic and personal context for this record, so I was ultimately coerced into watching this video instead, and if you have the faintest interest in uncovering some of that context, you might as well watch it, too.

And now I know a thing or two about where Poppy is coming from (Hollywood's an infernal cesspool, by the way, and you should never go there), but (and I suspect that I will not be alone in this predicament) I am still operating without a safety net here, for I Disagree is as rooted in trendy, sassy electropop as it is in heavy metal. Seeing as I listened to only two pop albums from 2019, I'm lacking in points of comparison. I Disagree is the most politely confrontational name for a metal album that I've ever heard; that much I do know. It works well with the blink-and-you'll-miss-it malevolence accompanying those otherwise innocuous synthesized sentiments.

I Disagree often sounds like nothing other than the curiously delayed American version of Babymetal, most immediately in the superficial comparison to a millennial pop singer whose sugary-sweet, infectious choruses are backed by chunky alt metal riffs and screams. This strategy works well on "Bite Your Teeth" and "Fill The Crown," to name a few standouts, and the use of Japanese on the title track will help listeners put two and two together. "Concrete" blows away any pretense to seriousness right from the start with an almost-literally-bubblegum hook reminiscent of a Toki Wartooth candy fantasy. The resemblance runs even deeper, however, as I Disagree shares the penchant for stylistic exploration that has made Babymetal more than a short-lived joke. Most songs shed their metallic raiment to some degree, whether to wander into a breathy dreampop bridge, evaporate into a summery indie rock chorus, or grind up an industrial hip-hop verse. The calm, relaxed "Nothing I Need" and "Sick Of The Sun" never venture into metal to begin with.

Poppy has entered the pit of metal, that crusty, hairy, beer-soaked underbelly of music, at a time when all genres can be mixed and matched at will, whether as an eight-second meme or for the duration of an entire album. For that reason, the mélange of sonic references slipped between disparate bookends doesn't sound as unnatural as it would have a decade ago. Sitting next to curious tips to Queen, Beach Boys, and others I'm not prepared to substantiate are more obvious influences from Motionless In White, Marilyn Manson, and Korn, along with whatever artists I ought to name-drop to conjure the proper image of cutesy deathcore that Poppy embraces for a significant portion of this album. This particular avenue is, I believe, the 2010s outgrowth of/successor to scene kid music that I, for one, did not need, but when packaged as acerbic moody-teenager pop with some drop-C riffs underneath, it all shakes out to be pretty listenable. Sumerian Records finally graduated from middle school and now has an angsty teenage daughter it has to relate to, and I guess that's why the title track reminds me of? Muse?

I Disagree is a very passable experiment; Poppy stretches her vocal capabilities, sometimes crooning gently, sometimes spitting violently, sometimes just talking in that uncanny alien voice of hers. The songs are all suitably catchy, whether filthy industrial nu metal or squeaky-clean pop. This is, in its essence, a pop album: well-produced, digestible, and mostly in the three-minute range. Though Poppy herself receives songwriting credit and her tumultuous career up to this point suggests a certain level of personal interest in the lyrics, a layer of cowriters, producers, and studio musicians insulates I Disagree from the world around it; perhaps it's part of Poppy's persona, but the whole venture feels a bit stiff and overproduced, as interesting as it can be, and more than any excess of melody or aesthetic contradiction, that artificiality - or the appearance thereof - is the hurdle I find most difficult to overcome with pop music. This is a bright, absurd, and fun album that I've enjoyed listening to, but will I think about it much a month or two from now? I don't know. Some listeners might object that I have no business being so lukewarm about this album when I do nothing but fawn over Babymetal. I agree. But here we are.

*I'm not a suburban father of two. It's a simile. I just thought I should clarify.