I’m a sucker for bands that experiment, and when Poppy released the music video for “Concrete”, I good a good dose of “WTF?” upon my first listen. It was evident that this song elicited two responses with little in-between: “I love it” or “I detest this with my very being”.
Working with multiple genres inside one song is very risky. It can be a challenge to mesh two different sounds cohesively. I personally think it works in most cases within I Disagree. “Concrete” sounding like Queen and The Beatles with metalcore is a thrill, but the rest of the tracks on the album do not see these levels of experimentation.
Luckily, a lot of the tracks are still a joy to listen to. The title track, “I Disagree”, has an infectious chorus, and the variation of gleeful, upbeat tracks like “Sick of the Sun” mix well with dark, standoffish songs like “Fill the Crown”.
There is a lot of enjoyment to be had in this album’s composition and production. The coda in the closing track, “Don’t Go Outside”, gave me goosebumps as it reintroduced the aforementioned melody in “I Disagree”. While none of the tracks try new things like “Concrete”, the overall variability is enough to keep a listener hooked from front-to-back.
Sumerian Records has pushed Poppy HARD the past few months, arguably more than they have over every other band on their roster. Whether they want to capitalize off of Poppy’s shock value, or believe her to be the most profitable asset, is hard to tell, but now that the album is here, we will see how the intense marketing pays off.
I believe one of the most important factors in an album’s success to be its replayability. I Disagree absolutely has this, as I could not adequately absorb the album in one listen. Currently on my third, I still like what I’m hearing and have new insights each time around. The ever-important question: is I Disagree worth your time? I surely think so, even if not every song on the album is as interesting as “Concrete”. Forego the shock that song gave you, and give I Disagree a spin before writing off Poppy; I hope to hear more like this.
