By Andre Paras
Staff Writer
A tragic accidental fall took the life of renowned British artist and producer SOPHIE on Jan. 30, 2021. She was known for pushing the boundaries of pop music through her abrasive style. With only one album released prior, titled “OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES,” she was already well regarded for pioneering the hyperpop subgenre.
SOPHIE’s career didn’t even last a decade, but she got to work with a decorated list of artists, including Charli XCX, Madonna, Vince Staples, Kendrick Lamar, Kim Petras and more. Whether she produced or influenced new songs in pop this past decade, the genre would look much different without her and her contributions.
Earlier this year, her family announced “SOPHIE” as the artist’s first and last posthumous album, following little work released after her death. Leaving behind hundreds of songs and pieces for her sophomore album, her family and collaborators spent three years trying to realize the vision SOPHIE had intended, according to NPR.
The main problem is, how do you finish a self-titled album, meant to define an artist and their sound, without the artist? And not to mention, an artist known for being such a visionary in her field. From what I know of SOPHIE, she would have tweaked these songs, which sound more like unfinished demos, and would not have dared to release the record in this state.
Instead of celebrating SOPHIE and her work, her posthumous self-titled album, released on Sept. 27, fails to achieve her true vision, leaving an unnecessary stain on her legacy. After giving this lengthy, 16-track record a few listens, I was left questioning her family’s intentions and those who decided to work on it. Her family said the full-length LP was made with lots of care, but it ended up being so safe that it’s offensive.
The first track, “Intro (The Full Horror),” negatively sets the tone for the rest of the album. It's a 4 ½-minute track full of eerie and ambient noise, and nothing else. Like most of the instrumentals on this album, there’s no theme followed, and despite their indulgent runtimes, they do not serve much purpose other than to include more of SOPHIE’s work.
“Plunging Asymptote” is annoyingly repetitive. It feels like an ingenuous attempt of being weird and avant-garde to please fans looking for something new, but ends up sounding more like a slew of nonsense with one repeating line and its lazily stitched-together instrumental of random noises.
Following this, the album only adds to my frustration with “The Dome’s Protection,” featuring a 7-minute stream-of-consciousness poem from Russian producer Nina Kraviz. With how long this runs, I feel it has so little to say. The instrumental combined with the voiceover is therapeutic, but I am still confused about what this contributes to the album.
The lead single, “Reason Why,” only feels more deceiving now. It's a catchy pop effort, and the one song on this record that I’d argue lives up to the rest of SOPHIE’s catalog in quality, but it definitely misguided my expectations going into this record.
“Reason Why” proves SOPHIE’s excellence as a producer, with this song being praised critically despite Kim Petras, the polarizing pop star, being featured. A lot of Petras’ recent music has caught flack for her collaboration with Dr. Luke, both in the quality of the music and in Dr. Luke’s controversial past actions in the music industry. However, this song proves Petras could still be beloved with the right producers like SOPHIE.
The middle stretch and all the way to the end of this record was difficult to get through, as if it already wasn’t hard enough. It’s chock-full of repetitive loops that run way too long. You could argue that it at least sounds polished and unique, but again, for an artist like SOPHIE known to be ahead of the curve, this record feels like it predates her first album despite being released seven years after.
The songs all begin to mesh together, and there aren’t even moments worth mentioning, as it’s all so mediocre and forgettable. There’s a dry spell of traditional vocal performances on these songs, and while that feels intentional, it just doesn’t work in favor of the record.
While there are still a few moments I enjoy — the tracks “RAWWWWWW,” “Reason Why” and “Why Lies” as examples — they don’t sway the negative thoughts I have on this album. Even those songs still feel wrong to listen to with how the whole release process has been handled.
Those working on the album seemed to not be working with enough material for how long the runtime is, and misunderstood what SOPHIE wanted or hadn’t realized it to its full potential. To complete the work of a visionary, you’ll need them there to do that. Thus, it’s rare I’ll be on board for a posthumous release for anyone, unless the record was 100% finished (or the late artist’s contributions were) and ready for release. Otherwise, let the artist and their catalog rest.
