Living art installation and ARGtist Poppy modernises Gary Numan’s Metal.

 

Irrespective of the controversy surrounding her and her collaborator, there’s little denying that Poppy, AKA That Poppy, is a fascinating multimedia art experiment. Equal parts alternate reality game (ARG) and art statement, Poppy as both a person and project has captivated audiences with its mystery and intricacies.

Playing into the ARGtist’s grand narrative now is Metal, a cover of the 1979 Gary Numan song. However, referring to it as a cover doesn’t really feel like it does it justice. The team behind the Poppy project has paid great attention to detail in recreating the instrumentation for a modern audience, leaving it with a 70s-throwback glam-rock-meets-pop feel to it.

Alongside this, Poppy’s vocals perfectly play into the robot manufacturing aesthetic of the track, making this indistinguishable from a Poppy original in many ways.

Regardless of the issues surrounding the artist at the moment or your thoughts on the project as a whole, Metal stands as a solid cover that does justice to the original. If you do one thing today, plug it in and turn it on.