Cassadee Pope
Cassadee Pope has had the kind of career that means you probably know her from somewhere — but that somewhere could be different for every listener. The Florida-born singer-songwriter got her start fronting popular but short-lived pop-punk band Hey Monday in the mid-Aughts before pursuing a solo career. (By the way, Hey Monday is reuniting for October’s emo-tastic When We Were Young Festival in Las Vegas.) In 2012, Pope won Season 3 of NBC’s singing competition show The Voice. Mentored by Blake Shelton, she became the first woman to win, and she kick-started a fruitful country phase that included a move to Nashville.
Over the next decade, Pope was nominated for a Grammy and took home a CMT Music Award, and her 2013 debut solo album Frame by Frame peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart. Two of her country singles (“Wasting All These Tears” and Chris Young duet “Think of You”) went platinum. In late 2022, Pope announced she’d be bidding country farewell — earlier this year in a Rolling Stone interview with sometime Scene contributor Marissa R. Moss, Pope elaborated on the roles racism and sexism play in that decision — and returning to her rock-based roots.
On Friday, Pope delivers on her promise with Hereditary, her first noncountry album since 2008. The record starts off strong with early single “People That I Love Leave,” released in June 2023. The track perfectly captures Pope’s commanding vocals, meshing the nostalgic pop-punk sound with a couple of extra decades of maturity. The next two tracks, “Eye Contact” and “Secret Master,” continue in stride, with angsty belting and catchy choruses primed for an Emo Nite sing-along.
As the record continues, things become a little less balanced. “Three of Us” is a particularly low point. The song’s sentiment about the effect of addiction on a relationship is important, but the delivery feels cheap. Being predictable isn’t a crime, but lyrics like “I wish I got you high / The way that you get high” and “It’s you and me / And the drugs make three” are closer to inducing cringe than the empathy the subject warrants.
Meanwhile, “Rom Coms” sounds like it’s straight from the soundtrack of, well, an early-2000s romantic comedy. Particularly nostalgic listeners may love it, though it feels tonally disjointed from the rest of the LP. But hey, even headbangers need a stretch break sometimes. “Capacity” brings some millennial therapy talk into the mix, and the theme continues on the title track. Feeling free to express herself in ways that weren’t possible in the mainstream country world is vital, but Pope doesn’t always hit the nail on the head in “Hereditary.” Some spots in the song, particularly its “la-la-la” outro, sound a bit like Pope is pulling a “How do you do, fellow kids” and trying to channel Olivia Rodrigo; still, Pope was here first. The lyric “You say I’m strange / Well, gee, thanks / Got it from my trauma” feels a little on-the-nose and melodramatic. But if we’re being honest, what else are emo and pop punk for if not letting out big feelings?
After a shaky middle section that’s not without enjoyable moments — Daisha McBride’s feature on the hooky “I Died” is a treat — the record regains its footing for the finale. Hereditary’s penultimate song “Ever Since the World Ended” is a quintessential pop-punk slow jam, a romantic duet with Aaron Gillespie of Underoath fame. It’s a hard trick to land, but the angsty ballad holds its own, reminiscent of your favorite song to cry to while straightening your bangs — like Paramore’s “When It Rains,” if you will. “Wrong One” ends things right, with a look back at the mistakes of bygone youth and infatuation. It shares some DNA with songs from Kelly Clarkson’s breakout era, and that’s as high a compliment as can be given.
If you’ve ever written song lyrics on a pair of Chuck Taylors or smeared on some black eyeliner before taking a selfie on your flip phone, Pope’s return to pop punk might be the perfect soundtrack for your summer road trip (or for some, a trip to the chiropractor). The fan base for whom this kind of music never stopped resonating is huge for a reason, and her new LP is a fine example of why.
