SOPHIE: She Was the Future
SOPHIE: She Was the Future
The music of the early deceased pop producer SOPHIE influenced Madonna and Charli XCX. The artist’s posthumous album heavily carries on her own heritage.
On January 30, 2021, the music world was jolted by the untimely passing of SOPHIE, who tragically fell from a balcony in Athens under circumstances officially described as an accidental slip while attempting to gain a better view of the full moon from a three-story building. At only 34 years old, Sophie’s life concluded abruptly, yet it was evident that her musical legacy would persist beyond her death. In the immediate aftermath, an outpouring of tributes from notable artists—including Rihanna, Sam Smith, St. Vincent, Vince Staples, Charli XCX, and Arca—flooded digital platforms, attesting to her significant influence. Sophie’s distinctive sound, characterized by piercing synthesizers, industrial bass lines, and memorable pop hooks, had already transitioned from the peripheries of experimental music into mainstream consciousness.
Shortly before her death, the British producer relocated to Athens to continue her work on new music. Among the materials she left were tracks and sound files comprising an unfinished album intended as the follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut, Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides (2018). Relatives overseeing Sophie’s estate indicated that the album was nearing completion, prompting the decision to release it posthumously. SOPHIE’s brother, Benny Long, attended to the final details, resulting in the release of the album, which is now titled SOPHIE.
The release of any posthumous work in popular music invariably raises unanswerable questions for observers: Would SOPHIE have presented the beats and soundscapes as we hear them now? Would her compositions have reflected engagement with the post-pandemic context into which they are now introduced? The album Sophie functions as a denouement and artifact replete with unresolved elements. Comprising 16 tracks, it does not culminate in a definitive artistic statement but offers a temporal snapshot of her creative trajectory. The listener can infer how the artist was evolving in early 2021, rendering the album a bittersweet and, at times, unfulfilling farewell.
SOPHIE’s emergence in the early 2010s was marked by a series of avant-garde singles that disrupted conventional musical paradigms. Tracks such as “Bipp” and “Lemonade” introduced unprecedented sonic experiences—energetic and assertive, with bright, saccharine qualities reminiscent of overstimulating sensory inputs. While the hooks possessed the catchiness characteristic of mainstream pop, other elements—such as pitch modulation, tempo fluctuations, and timbral experimentation—were boldly unconventional and frequently distorted. Collaborating with A. G. Cook, producer and founder of the influential London-based label and art collective PC Music, SOPHIE became a central figure in the nascent electronic scene from which the hyperpop genre emerged. This movement subsequently permeated the pop mainstream, influencing artists from Britney Spears to Charli XCX; however, the innovation exhibited in Sophie’s earlier compilation Product (2015) remained unparalleled.
Initially, SOPHIE maintained anonymity behind abstract cover art and dimly lit DJ booths, but with Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides, a more pronounced performative dimension emerged in both her music and stage presence. In 2017, she publicly presented herself as a transgender woman in the music video for “It’s OK to Cry” and subsequently emphasized the fluidity of gender—paralleling the fluidity in her sound—through elaborate stage productions. The album SOPHIE represents a further expansion in this context; unlike her prior releases, it is notably characterized by extensive collaboration. Except for the opening track, “Intro (The Full Horror),” every piece includes contributions from other artists, including pop vocalists Kim Petras and Bibi Bourelly, lesser-known acts such as the duo BC Kingdom, longstanding collaborators like Hannah Diamond and SOPHIE’s partner, the Greek musician Evita Manji.
Consequently, the album traverses a broad spectrum encompassing pop, ambient, and techno genres. Several tracks have been accessible online for years or were incorporated into SOPHIE’s live performances during her career. The album commences with “Intro (The Full Horror),” evoking the ambience of a science fiction film soundtrack, before transitioning into “Plunging Asymptote,” where synth drones and abstract sonic textures predominate. It is not until after “The Dome’s Protection”—a seven-minute spoken word piece featuring Russian techno DJ Nina Kraviz—that the album accelerates in tempo. Euphoric electro-pop compositions such as “Reason Why” and “Live in My Truth” introduce the second, more club-oriented section of the album. In this latter half, tracks like “Elegance” and “Berlin Nightmare” fluctuate between house, techno, and looped rhythmic structures. The album concludes with hyperpop meditations on concepts of time and timelessness.
There is a desire to embrace SOPHIE wholeheartedly, to experience the album with the same astonishment that accompanied her earlier works. Despite the dense and unpredictable production of the posthumous tracks and the evident care with which the album was completed, SOPHIE does not resonate with the same impact as during the 2010s. Her absence becomes conspicuously evident; the new pieces lack the intrinsic vitality that the artist herself imbued. While the compositions are not lacking in quality, they do not represent a further radical transformation—a criterion that would arguably be unreasonable to impose upon other artists, particularly those who have been deceased for three years. Thus, SOPHIE functions as a prospective last statement, albeit not conclusive. The future of her artistic vision remains an ongoing process.