Rating: 3.5/5 stars

SOPHIE, the Scottish DJ, producer and songwriter has a new album titled “Sophie,” released three years after her death in January 2021 after an accidental fall in Greece. 

The musician first found success with her electronic and heavily synthesized pop music in the early 2010s and later in the decade when she collaborated with Charli XCX on the EP “Vroom Vroom.” Around the same time, SOPHIE released her debut compilation “PRODUCT.” In the next few years, she would work closely with XCX, producing back-to-back projects for the singer. Later, the producer would release her debut album “OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES,” which went on to be nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 2019 Grammys. SOPHIE made history as one of the first openly transgender artists to be nominated in the category and among one of the few trans women to be nominated for a Grammy. 

In the last few years leading up to her untimely death in 2021, SOPHIE continued to make and release music. After her death, her family revealed the musician had a trove of songs recorded and prepared for an album. It took three years of family and producer work to finish the album officially. “SOPHIE” is a showcase of the namesake’s style evolution and talent. 

The 17 tracks comprised of pieces SOPHIE composed early on in her career and barely-finished demos, all pulled together and polished to give fans a final piece of the legendary producer’s talent. The album opens with “Intro (The Full Horror),” an ambient and meditative-sounding piece with no lyrics. The four-minute song flows smoothly and takes listeners out of their heads for the duration. In the song’s last minute, a dog can be heard faintly barking, as if it were miles away. 

“Intro” transitions into the second track, “RAWWWWW,” which features Jozzy. It is a harsh transition from the ambient opener into the droning of the backbeat and Jozzy’s vocals. This sets the tone for the rest of the album, with the rest of the songs being a collaboration between the music SOPHIE left behind and other musicians. The base for each song is rather whimsical, whether it be more aggressive like “Plunging Asymptote” or ambient and existential like “The Dome’s Protection.” 

As one gets further into “Sophie,” the artist’s pop side begins to manifest itself more and more. “Reason Why,” which features Kim Petras and BC Kingdom, is more within the box of pop music popular in the late 2010s, with layers of electronic percussion and imitation of a mallet instrument behind high-pitched repetitive vocals and the main lyrics. 

This album features almost exclusively outside vocalists. The various singers were brought in by the musician’s siblings to help realize their sister’s vision. BC  Kingdom, who appears on several tracks throughout the album brings to life the sweet and upbeat light to SOPHIE’s already sugary electronic pop. An outstanding example is “Why Lies,” featuring LIZ, a catchy and fun piece with dreamy vocals and artificial bass. The song makes dancing hard to resist. It transports you back to SOPHIE’s journey in Berlin dance clubs in early 2008-2009. The style is nostalgic, but also strikingly modern as she ebbs away from light-hearted beats into harsher tones. This is exemplified in “Elegance” and “Berlin Nightmare.” Both have a sense of unseriousness but appear to be much darker,  building up a sense of doom as the pieces continue. The synth gets heavier and heavier in the next few songs, only to lighten up in “One More Time” and then change tones completely with “Exhilarate,” featuring Bibi Bourelly singing a hopeful and uplifting tune over a persistent backbeat.

“Sophie” transitions back into the ethereal, more ambient pieces, slowly fading away the harsher tones seen towards the middle of the album. “Always and Forever” sees Hannah Diamond on vocals, her soft voice hauntingly singing “sometimes I just want to fly/Into the skies, into the light/ transcending time/ For always and forever,” the lyrics are almost ironic, taking into account the manner of Xeon’s passing- the musician fell three stories from a rooftop in Athens, Greece while attempting to take pictures of the moon. 

Following “Always and Forever” is track 15, “My Forever,” which serves as a beautiful and touching moment for her family as they arranged the album. The song sends a comforting message of always being with a loved one, even when they feel alone. The same goes for the final track, “Love Me Off Earth.” While keeping the solidly electronic backbeats and experimental soundscape SOPHIE is known for, the two songs mix the ambiance of the album’s opener, bringing “Sophie” to a full circle as it closes.

Just as other posthumously released albums can struggle with the lack of complete material, “Sophie” is no exception. The task SOPHIE’s family faced of rounding out unfinished songs was a blatant challenge; while the music often flows together well, pieces from throughout SOPHIE’s career feel clunky next to new ones, creating an album that feels conceptually unfinished. 

Overall, the album is a great insight into the famed producer’s avante-garde style and talent that continues to captivate fans, as well as those just discovering her.

Image by SOPHIE from Youtube