I'm convinced SOPHIE was a genius
Sometimes, true masterminds lurk in the shadows.
About 10 days ago, news of the death of the Scottish pop star, singer, songwriter and producer SOPHIE hit my timeline. It was a beyond tragic story: she’d climbed onto a roof to stargaze in Athens, slipped, fell, and died from her injuries.
“She will always be here with us,” said her record label, Transgressive HQ, who called it a “terrible accident”.
Her name instantly rang a few bells. Back in 2016, I’d written a story for the newspaper I was working at at the time about how she was due to perform at that year’s Laneway Festival in Auckland but had missed her flight and was forced to cancel.
Fans were upset about it, and very vocal in their disappointment.
I remembered that, but struggled to recall any of her work. I thought I hadn’t heard any of SOPHIE’s music.
But as the tributes rolled in, fans began posting links to her favourite songs, both as a solo performer, and as a producer.
It turns out I’d heard plenty of her work.
I just didn’t know it was her.
On Vroom Vroom, she provided the blueprint that sent Charli XCX’s career on a different path, a song every fan of the outspoken Brit-pop star knows and loves…
On Yeah Right, she delivered an absolute monster for Vince Staples and Kendrick Lamar (Kendrick Lamar!). I must have cranked this more than 1000 times in my car…
And here’s Nights With You with the Swedish pop star MO that was produced with Benny Blanco and Cashmere Cat and received a tonne of radio play. Talk about an all-star line-up…
Clearly, artists turned to SOPHIE when they wanted their songs to sound hard and gnotty and huge, with futuristic thumps and massive bass blasts. All of these songs still sound absolutely pristine, like they were years ahead of their time.
But that’s what she did. Over the past week, I’ve dived into more of SOPHIE’S work, her back catalogue, her rare tracks, her live performances, and her incredible 2018 album Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides.
Aside from that pretty crap new Foo Fighters album, it’s about all I’ve listened to.
The conclusion I’ve come to is this: SOPHIE was a genius. All of her music sounds like it’s landing from another dimension, beamed here through lasers and mirrored refractors and prisms. I feel like she’s rewiring my brain.
Now I’m belatedly feeling gutted I never got to see her play at the 2016 Laneway Festival.
No song sums SOPHIE better than Ponyboy. Ponyboy is an absolute beast of a song. Turn it up, play it loud. It will crush you. It will melt your face off. Start your weekend off with this. It’s incredible…
SOPHIE’s glitchy, forward-thinking production prisms aren’t the real sign she’s a genius. Her genius comes from the fact that she’s always been there, soundtracking songs that I’ve been hammering for the best part of a decade, without me even knowing it.
A secret genius is still a genius. We’re all idiots for not recognising it sooner.
Five things to do this weekend:
Synchronic is out at the movies, if you want a super-chill sci-fi film to devour. It’s about designer drugs and time travel and ambulance bros and is a dark, gritty good time.
If you want a Netflix true crime binge, then Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel is about a particularly creepy hotel in Los Angeles that some residents never get to leave.
Little Nightmares 2 just came out for the Playstation, a terrifying platform game that will absolutely live up to its name. You won’t sleep, but it’s worth it. It’s one of my favourites.
Binge all five episodes of It’s a Sin on TVNZ OnDemand, a show that’s colourful and camp and vibrant and wonderful and will absolutely break your heart.
British hip-hop brat slowthai releases his sophomore album TYRON today, and it’s grime-indebted beats and slippery rhymes will be soundtracking most of my weekend…
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