Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Following her death in early 2021, transgender electronic music icon SOPHIE’s self-titled album was released by her brother Benny Long. Between the debatable ethics of the project’s existence and its unfortunately dubious quality, “SOPHIE” is an odd closing note to an illustrious career.

“The sound design and everything, all the compositional ideas … all the layers within each song were already there in some form,” Long said in an interview with the New York Times.

Within that same interview, Long said the completion of the album called for the use of specific soundscapes he knew SOPHIE wasn’t happy with, and the 16 tracks on the project ranged from fully completed to a rough idea before SOPHIE’s death.

While listening through this project, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the music wasn’t authentic to the new direction taken by a musical visionary, but instead, fragments of her ideas cobbled together with countless guest features to fill in the gaps.

Though I believe SOPHIE’s family had the most earnest of intentions with this album’s curation, the actual song compositions reflect the emptiness of most cash-grab posthumous projects.

The opening run of “SOPHIE” consists primarily of sprawling ambient tracks with undeniably pretty textures, but a clear lack of substance. While “Intro (The Full Horror)” conjures vivid iconography of deep space and the spiky synths are well blended on “Plunging Asymptote,” the lack of a dynamic build-up or introduction of new elements as the tracks progress causes the album to drag in its opening moments.

If SOPHIE truly intended to head into a more spacious, ambient-inspired direction with her art before her death, I would be open to this sonic direction. But with the context of her passing, the predominant emotion of the music being empty does no favors for the listening experience, especially one as hyped as a celebration of SOPHIE.

Thankfully, the project finds its footing in its middle chunk. “Reason Why” plays into the dance-accessible tones found across her first full-length album “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides,” and BC Kingdom provides competent impressions of The Weeknd on “Live In My Truth” and “Why Lies.”

Even with these stronger tracks, the songs have a noticeable inability to shift into second gear. While a significant portion of SOPHIE’s appeal came from that abrasive sonic palette mixed with surprising melodic sensibilities, her compositions always had a knack for bombast and crescendos that this project severely lacks.

Instead of the grand anthems that define her best tracks like “Immaterial,” “Infatuation” and “It’s Ok To Cry,” “SOPHIE” manages to capture the stylism and raw compositional elements without a great deal of emotional catharsis because she didn’t get to finish those songs herself.

The project goes on a three-track run of generally bouncy instrumentals with “Elegance,” “Berlin Nightmare” and “Gallop,” harkening back to the lock-step percussion and crushing synths of “PRODUCT.” These cuts remain firmly in the camp of interesting ideas rather than completed songs, but they do feel aligned with SOPHIE’s previous body of work, which is more than can be said for the majority of this project.

“Exhilarate” and “My Forever” are both fairly competent pop-adjacent tracks, although they ultimately feel sonically disconnected from the rest of the project, even with the featured artist on the latter track, Cecile Believe, being the lead vocalist on SOPHIE’s last album. Despite standing out as highlights of “SOPHIE,” both tracks would have benefitted as singles for their respective singers, with SOPHIE’s posthumous credits being left to the liner notes.

That said, the album does have one truly transcendent moment: “Always and Forever,” featuring Hannah Diamond, a frequent collaborator in SOPHIE’s early eras. The track serves as a beautiful tribute to Diamond’s lost friend, reminiscing on their final interactions, which involved conceptualizing the track. Naturally, it not only sounds like the most “complete” song on the album, but actually has an emotional impact, worthy enough to be placed alongside Charli XCX’s “So I” and Caroline Polachek’s “I Believe” as top-tier SOPHIE tributes.

Outside of that singular song and a few scattered good ideas, “SOPHIE” doesn’t hold a candle to the rest of her catalog. Frankly, this should’ve been expected from a posthumous album. If you were a SOPHIE fan looking for remnants of her recorded material, plenty of this album could’ve been accessed through leak websites.

I want to stand behind Long and his genuinely good-natured decision to complete his sister’s vision, but maybe the project would’ve been best off being posted to SoundCloud and Bandcamp for the diehards to listen to, instead of receiving mainstream publicity.

Unfortunately, the project has garnered a vicious level of fan backlash on SOPHIE’s behalf, that, while somewhat justified in the specific critiques, demonstrates a clear inequality of expectation that shouldn’t be projected on a long-passed auteur and her grieving family.

While many pointed this album out as a detriment to a spotless discography, I wonder if this public outcry could have been easily avoided by a more rational understanding of what music would be on display, as opposed to a carbon copy of “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides.”

Regardless of the album’s quality, I’d like to think SOPHIE’s legacy will be well-entrenched in music history, always and forever.

Published on October 8, 2024 at 12:37 am

johinz@syr.edu