To many fans of this thing we call rock, ‘pop’ is something of a dirty word, perceived as a genre of music somehow beneath the artistic skill and prowess of other musicians who play guitar and shout a bit. This is, of course, nonsense, and the melting pot of pop is brimming with boundary-pushing and inventive artists like Charli XCX, Saint Vincent and Grimes to name a few. Sort-of anonymous art collective The Armed are acutely aware of the vitality and vigour pumping through 21st Century pop’s veins, using it as the backbone for their new form of heaviness dubbed ultrapop. According to the band, the album is “an open rebellion against the culture of expectation in ‘heavy’ music,” and you just have to look at the visuals surrounding the record understand how The ...
