The UK outfit Sleep Token has done what we once thought impossible: Found commercial success playing heavy metal music in 2025 AD.
Their fourth studio album, Even in Arcadia, went to number one on the Billboard 200 upon its release, with all ten of its tracks charting on the Hot 100—this despite the fact that the band has been entirely masked and anonymous through their nine year existence.
Sleep Token's willingness to inject their brand of heavy metal with autotuned pop vocals, reggaeton beats, and hop hop inflected rhythms has widened their audience, but in the process had galvanized scathing criticism. Pitchfork gave the album a withering review calling Even in Arcadia "schmaltzy and dull," while Anthony Fantano dubbed the band "metal music for Disney adults."
We get to know Sleep Token—the music and the controversy—by listening deeply to the ways they toy with the genre conventions of metal, and ask whether they are changing the sound of pop in the process.
AUDIENCE SURVEY 2025: https://switchedonpop.typeform.com/survey2025
Songs Discussed
Sleep Token - Thread the Needle, Emergence, Caramel, Damocles
Ghost - Satanized
Metallica - Hero of the Day
Nickelback - How You Remind Me
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45:59
Charli XCX threw this party 4 us
Five years ago, Charli XCX released the track "party 4 u," a melancholic ode to throwing a function for that one specific person. Now, in 2025, the song has gotten a renewed life – motivated by a foolproof cocktail of TikTok trends, the Billboard Hot 100, and a post-Brat Summer clamor for Charli.
It's rare for pop songs like this to get a second wind. So, on this episode of Switched On Pop, Reanna, Nate, and Charlie put on our detective hats on to dissect the five-minute song's vocals, textures, and structures to understand just why people are reconnecting with it, half a decade later.
Songs discussed:
Charli XCX – party 4 u
Charli XCX – claws
Charli XCX – 4 in the Morning
Charli XCX – anthems
Lesley Gore – It's My Party
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38:38
808: The drum machine that changed music forever (Twenty Thousand Hertz)
The 808 is arguably the most iconic drum machine ever made. Even if you’ve never heard of it, you’ve definitely heard it. It’s in dozens of hit songs -- from Usher to Marvin Gaye, Talking Heads to The Beastie Boys -- and its sounds have quietly cemented themselves in the cultural lexicon. In this episode, we try to understand how that happened and follow the unlikely path of the 808. Featuring DJ Jazzy Jeff and Paul McCabe from Roland.
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27:48
Chartbreakers: Lorde & Drake reboot, Worship Pop, and the shortest song ever
What happens when worship anthems climb the charts alongside soul revivals and nostalgia-driven comebacks? The May 2025 Billboard charts reveal a fascinating musical landscape where Drake performs a strategic reset after his epic battle with Kendrick, worship-adjacent pop dominates the mainstream, and The Marias reject conventional song structures with dreamy success. From the bizarre 34-second Minecraft soundtrack hit to the rise of "voice audition pop," we're exploring how these competing visions of pop music reflect our collective anxieties and cultural shifts. Is this beautiful chaos the new normal?
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52:27
‘Sinners’ summons the demons of American music
We rarely cover movies here at Switched On Pop. But after seeing Ryan Coogler's new vampire musical Sinners, we knew we had to make an exception.
The movie is an ode to Black music. Throughout its over two hour runtime, the film pays tribute to the blues: nodding to the musicians, instruments, and melodies that make it a foundational genre in the American musical canon. There's also Irish folk vampires, original music from Ludwig Göransson, and a whole lot of history – perfect for Charlie and Nate to sink their teeth into.
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A podcast all about the making and meaning of popular music. Musicologist Nate Sloan & songwriter Charlie Harding pull back the curtain on how pop hits work magic on our ears & our culture. From Vulture and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Canada - english