It's been almost four years since SOPHIE's death. The experimental producer and rising avant-garde pop star was unlike anyone we'd seen — or heard — before, and it was rapper Vince Staples, for whom the elusive innovator helped produce the album Big Fish Theory, who perhaps best captured her unique presence, both in the studio and beyond. "Sophie was different. You ain't never seen somebody in the studio smoking a cigarette in a leather bubble jacket, just making beats, not saying one word," Staples posted on Twitter after SOPHIE accidentally fell to her death while trying to take a photograph of the moon from a hotel room in Greece. He followed up by writing, "And don't let the verse be deep or heartfelt 'cause she stoppin' the computer and walking outside until you get back on some gangsta shit." I love this description of a trans woman quietly demanding power in spaces where creators like her rarely had — a ghostly presence curating and drawing out the best work from a wide range of artists.
That's how SOPHIE feels scattered across her posthumously released self-titled collection, mixed by her brother and longtime musical collaborator, Benny Long. Nearly every track selected and finalized by Long is a collaboration between SOPHIE and artists who've been a part of her creative legacy. On first listen, I had trouble finding SOPHIE herself amidst the onslaught of musical features. But as I continued to listen, my initial frustration evolved into something different; it became the very reason why this release feels so special.
"Every session would turn into a party of sorts," wrote featured artist LIZ in a recent social media post, reflecting on her two appearances on the record and her broader creative relationship with SOPHIE. "It's how she designed it, and it's the energy she wanted to inject into her music." This paints a picture of an artist who served as the nucleus of a community of collaborators. Imagine a smoky downtown London apartment buzzing with life and underground artists demanding to be heard, and at the centre of it all, SOPHIE sits quietly at her soundboard, piecing the sounds together. Finding her may take some searching, but as LIZ suggests, this is all "by design." The songs featuring the high-femme pop act — "Live In My Truth" and "Why Lies" — stand out, evoking memories of early SOPHIE tracks like "Like We Never Said Goodbye" and "Nothing Else to Say." These are alien-like, sugary pop confections, gleaming with an otherworldly, oily iridescence.
However, SOPHIE is not quite a SOPHIE record. From the somewhat conventional album artwork to the collection's more accessible tracks, fans of the electronic experimentalist can sense that a certain mad-scientist precision is missing, preventing the album from fully embodying a true SOPHIE creation. But crafting a collection that could authentically pass as SOPHIE's work is impossible without the producer's otherworldly touch. Instead, Long took the project in a different direction. Since SOPHIE wasn't around anymore, Long assembled what feels like a grand house party of SOPHIE collaborators in her honour. It's almost like a wake — celebrating her unique musical talent and the collaborative community she fostered. SOPHIE is more of a showcase for the underground artists she collaborated with than a proper solo album. It's a queer, avant-garde house rave where you have to search a little to find the main act at its centre.
Near the end of the record comes "Always and Forever," a collaboration with Hannah Diamond. The track is a baby-pink dreamscape, offering a soft contrast to the louder, harsher songs surrounding it. This feature holds historical and pop-cultural significance, as Diamond was an original member of PC Music, the underground experimental pop collective where SOPHIE once orbited. It's curious, however, that we don't hear from more of her well-known early collaborators, notably PC Music's A.G. Cook or Charli XCX, their shared muse. Kim Petras appears on the buoyant lead single "Reason Why," and frequent SOPHIE collaborator Cecile Believe shines on album highlight "My Forever." These tracks are classic SOPHIE powder kegs, and when strung together, they reveal Long's deep understanding of his sister's artistry.
The afterglow of SOPHIE is bittersweet. It's a successful album, but it's not quite a SOPHIE project. If you follow the sounds long enough, you'll eventually find her — quietly commanding the aux cord from another, better dimension somewhere in the kitchen.