After months of anticipation, the second and final album from trailblazing electronic pop producer SOPHIE has arrived. The self-titled record is a celebration of the humorous, thought-provoking, sometimes off-putting musical world Sophie Xeon created before her life was tragically cut short in 2021. With the help of her past collaborators, friends, and family (including her brother and co-producer Benny Long), the unfinished projects she left behind have been brought back to life in the form of an hour-long sonic odyssey.
The album is broken into four distinct sections. It begins with ‘Intro (The Full Horror)‘, a dark ambient instrumental piece that plunges the listener directly into the SOPHIE-sphere without warning. The opening section evokes an unsettling, vacant darkness that isn’t smoothed over until the album’s lead single, ‘Reason Why (feat. Kim Petras and BC Kingdom)‘, signals a temporary transition into relatively standard SOPHIE fare. Laden with sugary hooks and lighthearted lyrics akin to those in her earlier hits such as ‘Immaterial‘ and ‘BIPP‘, the following few songs conceal an uneasy emptiness simmering underneath, as if to signify a calm before the storm.
The storm comes in the middle section, which feels like being trapped inside a techno club from hell. The tracks “Do You Wanna Be Alive (feat. BIG SISTER)“, “Elegance (feat. Popstar)“, “Berlin Nightmare (feat. Evita Manji)“, and “Gallop (feat. Evita Manji)” are knit together to comprise a chaotic DJ set with rapidly-changing tempos, growling bass lines, and voices approaching from all directions. The constant auditory whiplash, though mildly anxiety-inducing, will feel familiar to longtime SOPHIE fans who have trained their ears to find comfort in such aggressive, gritty noise.
The album’s final section takes mercy on the listener’s heart rate, making one last turn into gentle, reverent synth-pop. “Always and Forever (feat. Hannah Diamond)” and “My Forever (feat. Cecile Believe)” tug particularly hard on the heartstrings; both songs speak of love and yearning for a faraway loved one, and the singers’ emotional delivery makes it feel as though they are singing directly to the late SOPHIE herself.
SOPHIE is known for walking the tightrope between bubbly pop and experimental electronic dance music – a legacy which has earned her a reputation as a pioneer of the “hyperpop” genre. And yet, SOPHIE isn’t really a “pop” or “dance” album. There is little emphasis on the actual songwriting, and the inconsistent rhythms make several of the tracks difficult to dance to for more than thirty seconds at a time. Instead, the record feels like an immersive soundscape designed primarily for the listening experience, allowing us one final glimpse into SOPHIE-world before saying goodbye.
Of course, as with many posthumous albums, the release of SOPHIE has come with mixed emotional reactions. It’s odd listening to this record without truly knowing which parts are SOPHIE’s and which ones aren’t. One can’t help but wonder how these songs might have sounded if she’d been able to complete them to her liking – given she would have chosen to release them at all. Instead, there are moments when the songs feel incomplete or empty, like the penultimate draft of an unfinished book. We will never know what SOPHIE’s final edits would have been, and we have to trust that Benny Long did the best he could to release a finished product that she would have wanted to show the world.
I think he did a noble job. SOPHIE’s legacy and spirit are still alive and well inside this album, making us giggle and cry and thrash around on the dance floor like it’s still 2018. I am one of many SOPHIE fans who love and miss her dearly, and I am grateful to have this final piece of her.
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