The experimental artist’s posthumous album is surprisingly safe given her overall forward-thinking catalogue.
The terms “generational talent” and “genius” shouldn’t be thrown around lightly, but a strong case could be made to describe musician Sophie Xeon as such, a pioneer in electronic music who cultivated a distinct sound unlike any other.
After amassing numerous production credits with artists such as Charli xcx, Vince Staples and Madonna, Sophie released her debut album Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides in 2018. The album is a towering achievement in electronic music, an otherworldly vision of the future that feels distant but also warm, understanding and strikingly human. It tackles queer identity in a way that isn’t overly philosophical and isolating, skipping straight to emotions themselves in musical form. She knew how to make every sound feel larger than life, but also effectively got to the meat of what she wanted to say.
The collection of songs provided an inspiring, futuristic vision of what could come from electronic music in the future. Sophie’s sound is unique and irreplaceable, unlike anything that came before it.
Tragically, the promising future of her career was cut short in January 2021 when the artist experienced a fatal fall at the age of 34. Her death was immediately felt by her peers and fans, her long-time collaborator A.G. Cook releasing a statement on her passing, detailing the history of her artistry and impact.
It’s hard to imagine the songs on this posthumous release were made by the same artist, or that she would have released them as they are in the first place.
The album, self-titled as “SOPHIE,” comes across as a rough brainstorm of ideas rather than a proper, cohesive project. It feels like an experiment of sounds thrown at the wall to see what sticks. The project was finished by Sophie’s brother Benny Long. The extent to which he impacted Sophie’s sound is up for listeners to decide.
The album begins with the four-minute ambient track “The Full Horror,” setting a mysterious tone that overstays its welcome, making the concept feel weak overall. You can’t help but feel like something is missing in the track: another tone, another synth, or perhaps it’s simply too long. In this sense, it’s a good track to open the album, as that feeling of something being absent occurs throughout the majority of the project.
The second track “RAWWWWWW,” is a head scratcher. It takes Sophie’s approach to deconstructing electronic music past the point of coherence. Nothing works together harmoniously, and it leaves you with a performance and instrumentals that feels uninteresting and anticlimactic, especially considering the dramatic opening track.
Signs of promise are found on “Reason Why,” one of the few songs in the tracklist that feel closer to being fully formed. It has an upbeat, bubblegum bass synth characteristic of Sophie’s signature maximalist production style. The same can be said about the following track, “Live In My Truth,” where BC Kingdom takes the lead, their vocals complimenting the production.
The next bulk of tracks are instrumental cuts, each sharing a repetitive quality that quickly gets old. “Berlin Nightmare” has glimpses of Sophie’s production style, but feels like a safer, watered down version of her previous work. The track lacks any of her previous edge, feeling too polished despite its aggressive sound.
It doesn’t help that it’s nearly four minutes of the same few bars repeated over each other. The drums feel overly compressed and leave no mark, an issue present throughout the album on songs like “Elegance” and “Gallop.”
“One More Time” repeats the same few bars in various degrees of reverb. It has a captivating atmosphere, but the painfully repetitive nature and lack of excitement throughout makes it unsatisfying. The song feels like you’re replaying the same ten seconds before a beat drops. It’s an interesting concept that is poorly executed.
The final high point that feels like the proper album closer is “My Forever” featuring vocals from Cecile Believe. Believe is credited as a vocalist and co-writer on Sophie’s debut album Oil of Every Pearls Un-Insides, performing on songs like “Is It Cold In The Water” and “Immaterial.” This makes “My Forever” feel more personal. Believe delivers the most soulful performance on the album over a cosmic-sounding R&B instrumental.
It’s unfortunate that this release will be how many new listeners are introduced to Sophie’s legacy, but perhaps it can do some good by pointing people towards Sophie’s stellar earlier work. Early singles like “BIPP” demonstrated her vision of deconstructing elements of pop music and exaggerating them, creating something entirely new that feels both minimalist in structure and maximalist in sound. Sophie describes it as experimenting with sounds that “exaggerate naturally occurring phenomena. An example being a piano that is mountain-sized and imagining what that would sound like if the strings were that large.”
Even if the music itself feels more airy and hollow than her previous work, the community of artists and fans interconnected by Sophie’s legacy is one that can be felt in the new releases. The love for her talent and mourning for her loss radiates through her peers and fans. Perhaps the best way to honour a deceased artist is to take inspiration from their work to create something new. This feels especially true for someone as unforgettable and forward-thinking as Sophie.