Album Review: SOPHIE by SOPHIE

Posthumous release from visionary electronic producer is a fitting addition to her legacy At the point of her untimely death in 2021, SOPHIE was at a crossroads - Oil Of Every Pearl's Un-Insides was bursting with ideas, and various musical directions would have been perfectly consistent with its material. This self-titled album promises to be the last full-length release for SOPHIE, but instead of putting a full-stop at the end of the story it raises interesting, open-ended questions about her artistry. SOPHIE's brother Benny Long took these songs from the project file to the final tracklist, and at times one can speculate that he brought something more conventional to the table.

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Prior to SOPHIE's tragic death in Athens, the avant-garde pop star had much of the follow-up to the hailed Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides completed. Its vision was partially revealed in a DJ interview: a collaborative effort to ground her art on "personable and down to earth" ideas. "Simple themes are important to me right now," she explained. With so much material left in the vaults following her passing, Ben Long, her brother and close collaborator, wanted nothing but to extend her legacy the way she intended.

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That's how SOPHIE feels scattered across her posthumously released self-titled collection, mixed by her brother and longtime musical collaborator, Benny Long. Nearly every track selected and finalized by Long is a collaboration between SOPHIE and artists who've been a part of her creative legacy. On first listen, I had trouble finding SOPHIE herself amidst the onslaught of musical features.

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The decision to release the eponymous final record from late pop pioneer SOPHIE is one innately riddled with challenges. Not only does it face all the typical criticisms of a posthumous album, it also stands in comparison to the monolithic legacy of her debut and only full-length record, the GRAMMY-nominated latex pop behemoth 'OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES': a project so definitive and singular it's near-impossible to fathom a successor. The album also bears the weight of uncertainty from the producer's devoted fandom.

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Listening to Sophie's posthumous self-titled album, which was supposedly nearly complete when she died due to a fall in January 2021, one can't help but think that the British electronic producer and popsmith could have made most of these songs in her sleep. From the beats that sound like they're alive, mutating and reformulating in real time, to the metallic or leather-whip percussion, to the sparkly bubblegum-pop--we've heard all of this from her before, only better. That's because what's glaringly missing from Sophie is the artist who wasn't afraid to be almost antagonistic, with songs that stopped in the thick of things or piled on a bunch of noises on top of one another in an ear-splitting cacophony.

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“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in” As an opener for reviewing the new album from SOPHIE, a quote from Leonard Cohen’s 'Anthem' probably isn’t what you were expecting. And that’s fair enough: musically, as you’d imagine, The Future by Leonard Cohen and SOPHIE’s self-titled posthumous album released this week are worlds apart. Still - there is a through line.

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