Guardian Lyrics – Poppy | From “Empty Hands”

Poppy’s Empty Hands arrives like a clenched fist wrapped in silk on January 23 via Sumerian Records, and “Guardian” crashes the party today—a shimmering shield of a single that swears to stand guard when everything else crumbles to dust.

This track is Poppy at her most defiant poet: heavy-pop swells laced with industrial grit and those glitchy electronic pulses that hark back to her early glitch-pop days, but evolved into something fiercer, more fortress-like. Co-produced with Jordan Fish (the Bring Me The Horizon wizard), it layers her ethereal vocals over brooding synths and a driving beat that builds like a storm front, cresting into that anthemic chorus where she pledges eternal watch.

Thematically, it’s a raw oath against the spiral—ephemeral vs. eternal divides, liars lurking in the shadows, crimson avenues of regret—flipping personal hells into a battle cry for unbreakable bonds. It’s vulnerability as armor, the kind of song that hits when you’re staring down your own unlevel circle, whispered from someone who’s clawed her way through fame’s perils.

As the third single off Empty Hands—following “Bruised Sky” and “Unravel”—“Guardian” teases the album’s core: a 13-track reckoning with loss and resilience, blending alt-rock edges, pop hooks, and electronic hauntings into a sonic diary of starting over with nothing but grit. The full tracklist unfolds like a map of the mess: “Public Domain” kicks it off shadowy and sprawling, “Bruised Sky” bruises with synth-driven ache, then “Guardian” at three, a quick-breath interlude in “Constantly Nowhere,” the title pulse in “Empty Hands,” and deeper cuts like “Negative Spaces” and “Zig” that nod to her ’23 pivot.

Recorded in fits and starts from 2023 to now, it’s Poppy reclaiming her narrative—no grand concept album, just honest fragments stitched into a fight song for the frayed. Fans caught the first whiff on her Insta last night, where the video’s neon-drenched visuals (her stalking rainy streets like a spectral sentinel) already have TikTok in a chokehold.

She’s blooming in this phase, seven albums deep since that viral YouTube doll era, trading bubblegum for barbed-wire anthems that topped alt charts and packed festivals from Coachella to Download. Post-Zig’s genre mash, Empty Hands feels like her most unguarded yet—motherhood whispers, therapy truths, and a Sumerian return sharpening her into the guardian of her own wild kingdom, ready to pull us through the wreck.

Dive into the Guardian lyrics below and unpack its raw narrative. Don’t miss other Empty Hands tracks for more of Poppy’s fierce, flickering alt-pop armor.