Poppy - Choke

Poppy
Choke
2019
Spotify

Choke is the new EP from YouTuber turned android turned Hard Rock turned Industrial Artist Poppy. This album coming quickly off the heels of her last record Am I a Girl? this record feels much more forced and contrived than her previous work. It's not that the idea feels bankrupt, it just seems like the interest is starting to wain. The idea of this seemingly petite and shy girl singing these powerful industrial songs was intoxicating at first. It was a match made in heaven, all the smooth contoured lines of makeup and filters only to be decimated by screeching guitars and electronic glitches. When Poppy let's the screams loose on tracks like "Scary Mask" there is plenty of aggression to be had, but very little of it feels like it has a direction. Grimes who worked on Poppy's last album is able to inhabit this space extremely well. Her voice may sound small, but give her a chance and she will absolutely destroy you with sound. Poppy seems to want that same vibe, but doesn't create music that gives it a chance to grow. "Scary Mask" is far to metal for her style and feels like nothing more than adolescent angst put into a bottle. "Meat" which tries to capture the horror factory farming while equating it with the human experience. It's a dark metaphor and one that doesn't really come together outside of the concept itself. Poppy seems to fancy herself more of a writer than she may actually be, lots of ideas but not a lot tying them together.

The album closes with "The Holy Mountain" a meandering piano driven track that ditches all the edge of the industrial or metal tracks and pitches Poppy as just another singer I guess? The thing that sticks out most about this EP is just how boring it is. Gone is any kind of novelty or excitement over this sort of wild project and in it's place is something mundane and tired. It's not like we expected Poppy to change the world, but after Her last really well done record you just expected something more put together than this. A snooze all the way through even with the banging electronics and wailing guitars. You can go ahead and press skip on this one.

4.0 out of 10