Album Summary
Empty Hands is the seventh studio album by American singer Poppy. It was released through Sumerian Records on January 23, 2026. The album's lyrics were written solely by Poppy, while production was handled by Jordan Fish, who also produced her previous album Negative Spaces (2024). Empty Hands received acclaim from music critics, who praised its production and Poppy's vocal performance, but some criticism aimed at its inconsistency. It debuted at number 137 on the US Billboard 200 becoming her second entry on the chart since her third album, I Disagree (2020). It also entered the charts in several countries including Australia and the UK, and becoming her first album to do so in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland. Empty Hands has been primarily described as metalcore, alternative metal, industrial metal, and nu metal. In a press release announcing the album, Empty Hands was said to feature elements of industrial music and pop sensibilities, with "moments that call back to Poppy's surrealist roots with her signature uncanny, machine-like voice". Critics have noted elements of speed metal, deathcore, punk rock, synth-pop, electronic rock, alternative rock, grunge, stoner metal, black metal, and djent. All of the album's songs are co-written by Poppy and Fish, with additional contributions made by House of Protection guitarist Stephen Harrison and Julian Gargiulo.
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Reviews
I’m not entirely sure that nu-metal was interesting enough in its heyday to really warrant a pop-revival, but here we are. I say that as someone who…embarrassing admission time…saw the Family Values Tour in 1998. I’ll also try not to overly criticize the addition of an album that’s less than a year old to this list of “must-hear” albums, but I do feel it is worth noting that this album was released less than 9 months ago, which means that the editors of the latest edition decided to add this record to the latest edition of the book almost immediately after the album’s release. Vocally, I’m impressed by Poppy’s range and ability as a singer. Musically, there are touchstones to bands like Deftones, Evanescence, Korn and a host of other late 90’s/early aughts metal acts. It’s all well done, but at point, much of the music starts to feel indistinguishable, not just from the artists that it is paying homage to, but also from other songs on the album. My extremely cynical take on this record is that no matter how unique you might think you are or how underground or countercultural you think your tastes may be, there is corporate machinery in place trying to figure out a way to commodify those tastes and market them for mass appeal and maximum profit. Clearly, I don’t think that is the whole purpose for this record existing. Poppy and her team have an instinctive understanding of how to make this type of music work well within the confines of pop music, making it more than mere homage or a nostalgic cash in, even if I’m content to leave this type of music in the past.
Apparently this is the best metal album since 2008.
You're really going to put an album released less than a year ago into an "essential albums" list? Give it at least a few years to marinate, won't ya?Now admittedly, the music itself is super intriguing and different, incorporating a kaleidoscope of influences from the get-go. Reminiscent of a more modern Portishead record. But I still question Dimery's logic. Public Domain uses a mind-boggling combo of declarative, "talky" singing in the verses (courtesy of influence from Lorde, Charli XCX, Olivia Rodrigo, and other modern pop icons), intense gaze-inspired guitar distortion, 80s-esque synths, and some nods to metal genres. Peep that scream in the final 30 seconds. An incredible opener. If Poppy was subtle about inspiration from metal (particularly nu metal) before this point, Bruised Sky makes it clear that metallurgy is here to stay. It's so damn distinctive. You don't hear many female artists doing that crazed garage-rock-core wailing. The production here creates a thick, unending wall of sound, and the mix contains a variety of frequencies, from that dark, grungy bass to a light high synth way in the back. If Poppy follows this with a ballad I think I might collapse inwardly (in a good way). Unfortunately there's no room for ballads here. Though Guardian is strong, it lacks a lot of that retro influence that made the first two songs so overwhelmingly great. The choruses here could be done by Katy Perry and I wouldn't bat an eye. You're think an autotune vocal interlude would be back in my books, but she picks some solid harmonies in Constantly Nowhere, a track that leads smoothly into the hypermodern Unravel. Man, listen to that combo of keyboard synth/hasty, filtered percussion. Again the choruses are nothing amazing, but goddamn, those verses. Jaw-dropping. Dying To Forget calls back those heavy metal vocals. Good god, they get me every time. Some excellent drum fills in this track, too. At the beginning of (what I assume to be) side 2, we have Time Will Tell, a piece that alternates between pretty but inconsequential verses with relatively small textures and big, heavy choruses. A decent song, though the autotune detracts from it a bit. Eat The Hate uses a rapid-fire four-chord progression that immediately brings grunge to the forefront of one's mind. The lyrics are pretty insane. I love them. The most interesting part of The Wait, for me, has to be the set of melodies – including the vocal in the chorus, the echo from the strings(?), and during the synth instrumental breaks. But if you want a return to that dreamy, gazey atmosphere, If We're Following The Light is the perfect specimen. Verses and choruses are flawless for completely different reasons; two sides of the same coin (gorgeous vocals and soundscaping vs screaming like a maniac). We get a similar interlude to Constantly Nowhere in the short track Blink – aptly named, since if you blink you'll miss it. Again autotuned vocals, this time accompanied by synth-strings (I think). Ribs stands out mainly for that synth melody in the back and for sounding worryingly like The One That Got Away – another Perry callback. Empty Hands is a solid closer, though I'm befuddled as to why it's marked as having explicit lyrics. What, you pearl-clutching grandpas can't handle one f-bomb? 4/5 Key tracks: Public Domain, Bruised Sky, If We're Following The Light
Empty Hands is strange because it's centred around a 25-year old style but tries to modernise it with various autotune and synth elements and I'm not sure it makes it better. When it's heavier or more straight-line nu-metal it's decent, Guardian is pretty good in that regard, and Dying To Forget is fair enough speed screamo metal, but stuff like Time Will Tell and The Wait and Unravel all seem like they're completely different pieces of work for the most part. I think it's a 3/5 effort because the good parts are good and align with my tastes but there's too much weird deviation away from it that makes the listening experience quite hard to get on with.
The site sent me a notification that 13 new albums have been added in the 2026 edition of the book, and has now switched me back from the user selections to the official selections. Apparently 3 albums I assumed were user selected were in fact new book albums. I guess they were added early, whatever. Now to see what new additions have been deemed ”must listen before you die”, displacing previous entries which displaced previous entries, implying some form of qualitative succession. Here we go folks it’s 🥁🥁🥁 A new Poppy album? Really? I haven’t heard a peep about this album before seeing it here. Why this one? It’s the pop-metal mix that was a left turn on her 2018 album ”I Disagree”, is this some kind of great new iteration of her sound? Not to say that I am familiar with Poppy’s artistic trajectory, but this does not strike me as anything new or especially noteworthy. Maybe this is a marketing ploy for me to buy the new edition and find out what could be the motivation for this choice. Starting off the new batch of albums with this is confirmation of the pattern of current albums added to the newest editions of the book being forgettable, and the editors being out of touch with contemporary music trends
A very recent album - added to the Generator today (after release of latest edition of the book). I listened to it earlier this year and liked it a lot - having been hooked by the taster single Bruised Sky (which attracted me before I knew anything at all about Poppy's previous work, which is still a bit of a head-spin mystery to me). When I first listened to this album I thought I should label it alt metal - I can now see it is very 'poppy' (lol) so I'll comfortably call it nu metal. But I am still very much here for the hooks, the histrionics, the vocal styles, all the guitars and keys, all the flourishes. The sound strikes me as quite professional - and I am okay with it as such. (Carefully produced, by Jordan Fish of Bring Me The Horizon, but to good effect.) Importantly, the variety of dynamics within songs and styles between songs is good. The album as a whole is consistently listenable and engaging, I will listen again, it's Pretty Wonderful, 9/10.
Public domain - 3 Bruised sky - 3 Guardian - 3 Constantly nowhere - na Unravel - 2 Dying to forget - 4 Time will tell - 2 Eat the hate - 3 The wait - 2 If we're following the light - 3 Blink - na Ribs - 3 Empty hands - 2