Since launching a decade ago as a childlike, robotic YouTube character and meme, Los Angeles-based Moriah Pereira, AKA Poppy, has parted from original co-creator Titanic Sinclair and devoted more of her energies to pop, amassing millions of streams for forays into everything from bubblegum to nu-metal. The subtext of her sixth album is a struggle for identity. “Maybe I’m the one I’m running from,” she sings on the hard-but-gentle The Cost of Giving Up, while the self-explanatory Surviving on Defiance is beautifully raw. Over 15 tracks, she emerges as someone determined to trust her own instincts.
After this year’s successful collaborations with Knocked Loose and Bad Omens, this sixth album leans into metalcore. Producer Jordan Fish (formerly of Bring Me the Horizon) brings industrial machine polish to heavy guitars, blood-curdling screaming and contrarily sweet, honeyed choruses. However, Poppy’s widening sonic palette stretches from electro-goth to the excellent Crystallised, a ready-made EDM-meets-Eurodance anthem.
