Flux - Poppy: Review
Poppy
is a Youtuber, singer, songwriter and wrestler? Not really. She is a genre and medium fuser known for elaborate visuals that connect to her music and a sound that blends together bubbly electronic synth pop and brash pummeling punk and metal. Flux is Poppy's 4th studio album and follows an extremely prolific run dating back to last years I Disagree which included a few EP's and a soundtrack album.
Review By Lav:
You guys should be used to me talking about Poppy by now. I enjoyed her music during her distinctive synth pop era which saw her breaking into the music business after a pretty unique stint on YouTube. I enjoyed her sound once she started to push into heavier and heavier territory, and I really enjoyed her sound once she threw everything against the wall on a true experimental rock EP in 2019. While I think it's nearly impossible to cover absolutely everything Poppy has had her hands in over the past 16 months or so I have at least heard all of it and tried my best to keep up with her artistic evolution. While there are splashes of the heavier stuff she dabbled in on her last record and some of the experimental sounds of Choke that pop up on this record, Flux sees Poppy diving headfirst into the world of pop punk.
So the elephant in the room is obvious, pop punk is very relevant right now. While Olivia Rodrigo brought the genre to the peak of it's cultural nostalgia earlier this summer artists like Hayley Williams, Halsey and Machine Gun Kelly have found tons of success throwing it back to the sounds of 2000's pop punk in recent years. For some people this would make the sound feel overdone and inauthentic, for others it would feel improved in the height of relevancy. While I'm doing my best to see through the trends and correctly identify the things I like and dislike about the record regardless of trends I should admit that aside from Olivia Rodrigo I haven't been crazy about the pop punk revitalization. Regardless of it all, Poppy's execution starts great but proves to be pretty inconsistent.
This record gets off to a really strong start across the first three tracks starting with the title track and lead single Flux which has fully won me over after I had an initially mixed reaction. It features glitchy mixing with flashes of synths over these wiry wailing guitar leads that all culminates in one of the better hooks I've ever heard on a Poppy song. The melody itself is pretty sweet but she delivers it with a snarky edge that pulls off her dichotomy perfectly.
Lessen The Damage is a straight up pop punk outing from the up-tempo riffs to the explosive and infectiously whiny hook. While it may not blow me away I do see it as having a simple appeal a lot of potential for crossover success. So Mean was the third and finale single and I think it's another highlight. Its an even further nosedive into pop punk but on the more commercial pop side of things. The track has some snappy percussion and a memorable riff but the real draw is those attitude soaked refrains on the hook and the near whispered resentful verses. It's an eruption of youthful angst that Poppy pulls off surprisingly well.
After this point on the album the record starts to get really inconsistent and there isn't much relief until the last few songs. On The Level doesn't have a single refrain in the mix that I find all that catchy or memorable. The best part of the song is the rumbling guitar reverb that its soaked in but by the time we get to the weird bridge I'm mostly over it. Speaking of bridges Bloom is like a murky rock song with reserved vocals and what is basically a wordless guitar bridge. I dare to say that conceptually it almost feels like a Nine Inch Nails track at least until the sweet hook comes in but even then the wiry reverb and jagged percussion still hang around. It's a cool idea for a song even if the execution leaves a little to be desired.
Hysteria is a track that sees Poppy apologizing for her "hysteria" but it has a hazy reverb soaked instrumental that almost feels like some of the pre-shoegaze synth pop of the late 80's. Even though I really like the instrumental I think the songwriting is an absolute slog and the song has very few memorable moments overall. Her is probably my least favorite song on the record which is a bit of a surprise because it's been one of her biggest songs in recent years and is crossing demographics in ways I didn't expect. It's a short troubled girl anthem and a relatively inoffensive punk song that doesn't do much for me.
The last two songs on the record are thankfully improved starting with As Strange As It Seems which is the Sick Of The Sun of this album. It's a thick hazy ballad on the back end of the record that sees Poppy singing softly over some fantasy layers of dream pop guitars. I don't find the song quite as catchy as its predecessor but the atmosphere alone is enough to put it in the better half of the records tracks. Never Find My Place is a ripping closer and another one of the better songs here. It has chugging guitars and an absolutely thin, wiry electric guitar riff that sounds so interesting alongside the other relatively punchy instrumentation and Poppy's occasional screaming. It also seems like one of the only songs on the album where the lyrics got slightly more attention and actually make some sense in pulling off a cohesive emotion.
Flux has its moments but overall I think this is the least exciting bunch of tracks Poppy has released to date. I'm completely fine with her transition from metal meets synth pop into a bit more consistent pop-punk style and I could even see it making these songs fit better alongside each other. Unfortunately this record has a crater of interesting songwriting right in the middle of it all. I have no doubt Poppy will continue to musically innovate and pop up in places we never expected her to, I'm just not sure I'll look back on Flux as all the compelling of a moment in her artistic development. 5.5/10
This cover reminds me of some type of surreal meme. I love that the composition isn't directly centered so your eye moves around the space even though most of it isn't utilized. The stark contrast of the white and black is nice but it does fall flat in that it needs some sort of added interest. Maybe a bit of branding with a hint of color would've rounded out the rough edges. 6.5/10
For more pop punk check out my review of Halsey's If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power here
