Poppy - I Disagree [Clear]

Poppy's I Disagree is the moment the internet's eeriest pop star picked up a sledgehammer, and this clear vinyl pressing showcases one of the boldest reinventions of 2020.

Having built a following through surreal YouTube performance art and candy-coloured electropop, Poppy had flirted with heavier sounds before going all in here. Her first album for Sumerian, produced by Chris Greatti and Zakk Cervini, called itself post-genre and meant it, folding metal, industrial rock and avant-pop into songs about empowerment, liberation and defiance. It also gave her a first entry on the Billboard 200.

"Concrete" sets the rules by breaking them, lurching from saccharine sing-song to crushing breakdowns in a matter of seconds. The title track "I Disagree" stomps forward on industrial riffs and a chanted refusal, "Bloodmoney" earned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance with its venomous, metallic swagger, and "Fill the Crown" builds into a rallying anthem for anyone ever told to stay small.

The brilliance is in how sweet and savage it manages to be at once, often within a single chorus, with her deadpan sweetness making every scream land harder.

Short, sharp and endlessly surprising, it still sounds like nothing else on the shelf, years after it first knocked heads loose.