Poppy, a musician and YouTuber, has always been known for the unsettling and disturbing aesthetic of her videos. Her persona led many to create conspiracies about her story and the reasons behind why she behaved so strangely. The traction she received from her YouTube career assisted the start of her own music creations, going from a pop genre and eventually branching out to her classic alternative style. This brings us to the release of “Negative Spaces,” her latest album released on Nov. 15.
This predominantly metal and rock genre album shows the success of her journey to reach her own, unconventional, music profession through loud guitar solos, new-age electronic melodies and, most exciting of all, her new heavy metal belting vocals. This feature is something she has started performing very recently, starting with her track on Knocked Loose’s album “You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To,” released this year as well. Her feature on the song Suffocate, one of Poppy and Knocked Loose’s most popular songs, introduced what her newer style of music would look like for this album — garnering the attention of 17 million listeners on Spotify.
This 15-track, 42-minute album starts subtly, a great way to ease the audience into her newer style while still showing her dedication to the metal scene. This upbeat song starts with her usual higher-pitched vocals, but roughly two minutes in she switches to screamo — intriguing everyone listening. This beginning is an exceptional way of showing the world what she has in store when it comes to embracing her own musical expressions.
Despite the whole of this album being everything the build-up could offer, the combination of songs that stuck out the most when listening was the combination of “Yesterday” and “Crystalized.” “Yesterday,” an interlude of soft vocals and little instrumentals, is a welcome break from the loud, hyperactive melodies flowing directly into the track “Crystalized;” the transition between them works gracefully. “Crystalized,” a very upbeat, pop-sounding song in the middle of very chaotic and unconventional songs, shows how much her music has changed and how versatile she has become. Poppy embraces the old with the new in her music, and the instrumentals are easy to get stuck in your head.
“Negative Spaces” has an enjoyable 2000s rock feel as the guitar solos that happen abruptly are unsurprisingly impressive, an undeniably great mix to tie the mood together.
“New Way Out,” one of the most popular songs on the album according to Spotify, is the perfect example of her new style, starting with her classic catchphrase of her own name, Poppy. The intervals of screamo vocals are exhilarating with the overall feel having similar aspects to bands like Flyleaf and Evanescence.
Overall, this collection of songs consisting of a mix of beautiful singing during the interludes, exploratory metal aspects and thrilling background elements — like drum and guitar solos with electronic elements — leads this album to be a model example of an experimental album done right. Poppy’s career has been one of illusion, especially the way it came to be what it is now. If one thing is certain, it is that she does not plan on stopping any creative and personable endeavors musically anytime soon.
