Hyper-fail: SOPHIE’s posthumous album is a flop

If you’re looking for classic SOPHIE, you’re not going to find it in “Sophie.” Classic SOPHIE is a pulsing beat, insane sound effects and minimal use of lyrics. The songs on this album feel like cheap imitations of a true artist.

SOPHIE was a trans-woman producer who exploded into the mainstream by working with Charli XCX, Kim Petras and Madonna. You’ve probably heard her song “Lemonade” from the “lime lips” trend on TikTok. Her studio album “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” received a Grammy nomination for best electronic/dance-pop album in 2019.

Her latest self-titled album, released three years after her death in 2021, features beats by SOPHIE that are changed and reworked by different artists — and they don’t do that good of a job at it.

The album begins with an intro, like many of SOPHIE’s previous works, but the intro does not build the typical sense of anticipation that long-time fans have come to expect. The album does not have the typical SOPHIE cohesion, with songs feeling out of place and totally different.

“RAWWWWW,” the second song on the album, feels like a generic Soundcloud pop song, with no signature SOPHIE elements to set it apart. When you listen to another artist's song that SOPHIE has a producer on the track, you can hear her.

In Charli XCX’s “Vroom Vroom,” it’s easy to tell that SOPHIE was a producer based on the variety of sounds used in the song’s mix. Many songs on this recent album lack any character, and it feels like another artist was given a few seconds of some of SOPHIE’s work and was just told to make something of it, regardless of quality or authenticity.

I can count on one hand the number of times I was listening to this album and I heard something that sounded like a SOPHIE song, and often it was only a section of the song that did.

The entire album feels disingenuous and just an excuse for artists to put their name on a track next to SOPHIE, especially due to her status as a trans icon. SOPHIE has been inspiring trans artists to make music in the hyperpop space. The album should have never been released, and it feels disrespectful to her legacy.

Rating: 3/10

rothra2@miamioh.edu