Review Summary: Messy fun
Once upon a time, everything was alright
I used to feel safe, not a worry in sight
Then I grew up, quickly realized
The world is a f*cked up place sometimes
Like or loathe Ronnie Radke, you can’t argue with his savvy business practices. This success is partly down to his infamy; however, it would be ignorant to solely chop it down to that when Falling in Reverse have genuinely been onto something in recent years. In the last half-decade, the band have drip-fed hysterically successful singles in slow-burning succession, complete with big-budget music videos, yet if we take a step back and look at the songs released in that time, the gamut displays a band showing a methodical patience and an embracing willingness to experiment, one that seems to have won people over in the process. How, I hear you ask? Well, I’m one of those people won over by their experimental curiosities – which is saying something considering Falling in Reverse were the kind of band that managed to, impressively no less, make me convulse whenever I heard their music. Admittedly, they marginally improved their sound with 2016’s
Coming Home, which moved away from being outright baffling garbage to just corny, upbeat electro-pop-punk junk that toned down their earlier traits. Nevertheless, I always found the band’s sound so bewilderingly awful, Radke’s whiny voice and the band’s cheesy style of music so objectionable, I never dreamt of the irony being bestowed on me today. Yet, 2019 saw a monumental paradigm shift when the band released the album’s titular track, and where seeds were being sowed for a capricious change of opinion in 2024.
You can tell Radke has been in the lab analysing and pushing the band’s abilities and their capacity for artistic exploration. In the past, Falling in Reverse’s releasing habits show a rigid two-year-turnover, yet,
Popular Monster breaks the tradition by taking seven long years to materialise. The reasoning is partially down to the industry shifting focus away from albums and onto music videos and singles, being that we live in the age of streaming on Spotify, TikTok and YouTube – all of which stand as the optimum sources of exposure and revenue in one form or another, and indeed, Falling in Reverse have certainly reaped the rewards from their high-production music videos and catchy singles – but the band have prudently kept an ear on the ground while doing it, reviewing the feedback and continuing to make songs that refine what works and omitting what doesn’t. As such, there has been an evolutionary change in their approach to writing, and while I’ll openly say nothing here is earth-shattering or revolutionary,
Popular Monster is still immensely fun and effective in its approach. The reason why I’ve snipped the opening lyrics to “Ronald” at the start of this review is to make a point: we live in pretty bleak times and I feel that music such as this is essential for it. There’s a reason why a band like Limp Bizkit has subsisted for nearly thirty years where others have faded into obscurity. People want to listen to larger-than-life music that is as ostentatious and ridiculous as it is fun, which is exactly what
Popular Monster provides. At times the record is absurd, hilariously heavy, sometimes cringe, and largely derivative, hitting all of the clichés and stereotypes from the given genre it’s pulling from. Yet, when the sum of its parts is pulled together, the results are undeniably satisfying.
Given the broad brush
Popular Monster paints with, everything on here isn’t going to gel with everybody all the time. I found “Watch the World Burn” to be on the wrong side of what I like about hip-hop and a little too modern for my millennial ass, with a choppy structure to boot. Similarly, “NO FEAR”, “All My Life”, “Bad Guy” and “Trigger Warning” tap into core elements of their cringey MO sound, however, I will concede even these songs are, overall, entertaining. “Bad Guy” and “All My Life” in particular manage to grab the coattails of my nostalgia by capturing the raw essence of popular early-00s music: the former being a chuggy alt-rock anthem in the vein of Three Days Grace or Breaking Benjamin, while the latter exudes this youthful, devil may care pop-punk energy so many bands fail at executing in the same way these days. So yeah, the record fumbles frequently inside of songs, but it also manages to hit all the right beats in all the right places for me. “Popular Monster” for instance has an unquestionably catchy chorus, a decent supply of hip-hop bars for the verse, and a surprisingly well-implemented metalcore-styled breakdown. What makes it so effective in its labours is Radke himself, who displays an unexpected depth and diversity to his talents. The man is like a Swiss Army Knife – a proficient rapper, a great singer, and he just about scrapes by with the screaming when it’s needed, which affords the band the opportunity to mix up and experiment with different styles. “Popular Monster” was a watershed moment for the band that saw great success, and for good reason. This template was then expanded upon for future singles, where “Voices in My Head” used infectious hip-hop verses and a gargantuan Panic at the Disco-styled pop chorus, topped off with a chubby djent breakdown at the end. Admittedly there’s a lot of recycled ideas within each song, namely the metal-styled breakdowns which are rammed into almost every song regardless of the style – but when the formula is this fun, it’s too tempting not to do it over and over again, and frankly, I’m here to listen to it done repeatedly.
On paper,
Popular Monster reads like an incoherent, schizophrenic mess, bursting at the seams with surface level influences from an eclectic range of genres and styles, all haphazardly stitched together with a derivative breakdown – which, of course, is correct. However, there’s a metaphysical element that adheres this Frankenstein’s monster of ideas and makes it all extremely fun and engaging to listen to. The record feels like it was designed to showcase Radke’s talents as a frontman. Despite not really liking “Watch the World Burn”, the track shows off his proficiencies as a rapper; the cover of Papa Roach’s “Last Resort” gives him a chance to utilise his impressive vocal range and ability to emote; and “Ronald” goes all in on the screams, which are undoubtedly the weakest aspect on here but are still decent. “Popular Monster” created a framework for the rest of
Popular Monster to work on, and that’s what helps rein in and ground the lofty ambitions. There’s a lot here that made me grimace, but the good elements far outweigh the blunders, and as I touched on earlier, the album comports this large-than-life swagger that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The album excels most at the choruses, which are nine-times-out-of-ten effective: they always release the tension and feel like a good payoff, regardless of whether the verse preceding it was dogsh*t or decent. Overall, there’s a lot of emotional conflict to unpack here, because its gambit to cater to everyone brings some unavoidable caveats, mainly consistency. That being said, while
Popular Monster is far from perfect, it’s really fun to listen to and largely succeeds with its endeavours.