Flux

Poppy

Flux is Poppy's second studio album for prominent metal label Sumerian Records and comes on the heels of last year's I Disagree. That record was a pretty significant record for Poppy as it saw a grand stylistic shift from the colourful, synth heavy, bubblegum pop, to an alternative rock and metal sound. Admittedly, I did not listen to that record, and that was perhaps bone-headed of me because this new record is quite good. I was expecting something more heavy, but ultimately, wasn't at all disappointed as this record covers quite a lot of 90s alternative with a decent amount of consistency. Simultaneously, Poppy lives up to her name by injecting so many catchy vocal hooks and choruses.

The record does start with a bit of a stumble with the title-track. I really like the intro of the song with it's cleanly produced bass and percussion hits. It seems to foreshadow a pretty epic and heavy journey to come. However, when the song actually comes in with a totally rudimentary guitar part and dance beat, the song falls flat on its face and cannot recover. It's an incredibly bland and boring piece of dance rock that is reminiscent of a band like Metric, but nowhere near as good in just about every way. After this though, the record hits a really strong stride with three bangers in a row. Lessen the Damage is a fast and aggressive punk rager which features some pretty great hardcore screams towards the end. So Mean by comparison goes in a much poppier (go figure) direction. The sound of the track reminds me so much of the youthful female mall punks that were coming up in Canada in the early 2000s like Skye Sweetnam and Avril Lavigne. Now that comparison might not be doing Poppy any favours depending on your feelings on those artists, but I don't really see what there is to hate. It's light, fun, the guitar tone is fantastic, and the vocals are really catchy.

The good times keep rolling with the most 'feel-good' track on the record, On the Level. It is such a brilliantly produced pop rock tune. The sentiment of the song is wonderful; finding that one person that you connect completely with and can be honest with each other about your feelings. The verses have a lightly driven guitar tone that again sounds great, but occasionally a really fuzzy guitar phrase will briefly pop in to give the track some added bite. As for the chorus, it's pretty much perfection. The guitar tone shifts into this fuzzy warm embrace and as Poppy continues to repeat the word 'level,' the vocal harmonies continue to stack on top of each other blissfully. We switch lanes again with the track Her, another one of my favourites. This track has a bit of a noisy alt-rock, grunge flavour; a cross between The Breeders and Hole. I love this track for the contrasting verses and choruses who's former sounds quite bitter as far as the vocal melody and lyrics are concerned, while the latter is quite sweet and cathartic.

After Her the record does end with a bit of a lull. While certainly not as offensively bland as the album opener, the last three tracks are not all that captivating, aside from a few vocal melodies here and there. There is also a great drum performance on the song Bloom that I would be remiss if I failed to mention. Despite the weak start and finish, this record does feature some of the strongest, most immediately catchy pop rock I've heard this year. I'm happy I finally checked out one of her projects, and I now feel like I must go back and catch up on her earlier stuff, even pre-Sumerian as I've started to develop a taste for maximalist bubblegum pop over the last little while.