SOPHIE - OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES

[alan nagsworth]

A very, very strong contender for what I've seen someone humorously refer to as "it's here, it's queer, it's album of the year!"

I've played it through about six or seven times in the last couple days and, honestly, it's just absolutely blinding. I love every song, and the pacing of it is superb, from the upfront vulnerability of the opening track into the intense, abrasive beats of Ponyboy and Faceshopping, the almost suffocating synth waves of Is It Cold in the Water? and Not Okay (interspersed with the gorgeous Infatuation), and finally, the phenomenal closing three tracks which segue from crushing ambience to body-positive bubblegum pop (Immaterial is so fist-pumpingly joyous it makes my head explode) to a beat-heavy maelstrom that gradually bursts through the atmosphere and floats off into cosmic oblivion.

The fact that Immaterial is a deliberate dead ringer for Madonna's Material Girl, and that Whole New World's chorus winks cheekily to the Aladdin soundtrack number of the same name, paying homage to well-established pop songs whilst deconstructing the ideals established therein and turning them into 2018-appropriate messages of strength and queer identity is just remarkable to me.

What's even more wonderful is that despite the modern day pop aesthetic leaning further and further into experimental territory (with your fka twigs and your Charli XCX, and not to mention the PC Music scene with which many of these artists including Sophie are affiliated) Sophie has managed to make something here which sounds one step ahead of the curve, genuinely alien, often unsettling, but always with a firm grip of pop sensibilities. Some of the vocals contributed here, most notably on Is It Cold in the Water?, are absolutely top tier pop bravado.

At forty minutes, it suits my attention span perfectly and there is just not a dull moment on this thing. Immaterial has me fucking beaming every time that beat drops. Fantastic album.

[wasp_f15ting]

Is there a CD version of this out? I tweeted her for details on CDs or FLACs she hasn't come back. I am not streaming stuff like this anymore.. I want dedicate some time for it!

[purlieu]

Physical is coming later in the year (I heard August). It's available as a download currently though, not just stream - here are some FLACs and WAVs and MP3s https://boomkat.com/products/oil-of-every-pearl-s-un-insides

And yes, it's great. It's been a relatively underwhelming year for music this year, plenty of good but not exciting albums so far, but this took me by surprise given that I found her music very much 'good but not exciting' in the past.

[Z]

I'm pretty wary of this one, it's okay to cry was easily the worst single she put out up to the that point, and I've only ever really rated bipp and like we never said goodbye. Before the reviews started rolling in for this one I was assuming it'd be a huge dud tbh

[alan nagsworth]

I'm pretty wary of this one, it's okay to cry was easily the worst single she put out up to the that point, and I've only ever really rated bipp and like we never said goodbye. Before the reviews started rolling in for this one I was assuming it'd be a huge dud tbh

I would recommend getting involved in this album. The way the pointedly fragile It's Okay To Cry opens the album as a total heart-on-sleeve statement before nose-diving into the other two fucking hoofing lead tracks, and after that taking another huge swerve in direction, is fucking superb. And if you're into Just Like We Never Said Goodbye, you'll wet yourself after Pretending when Immaterial finally kicks in.

given that I found her music very much 'good but not exciting' in the past.

Completely agree. I think it took Sophie a little while to break away from the hyper-bubblegum sound of A.G. Cook and Hannah Diamond and whatnot, but it's completely come to a head here, and that singular voice (sung largely through the vocal efforts of others) is completely shimmering. I cannot get enough of this.

[sevendaughters]

I wanted to like this a lot. While I found the production interesting and idiosyncratic, I ultimately find that latex-y sound a bit off-putting. And then when I heard it a second time, I just thought the lyrics and construction of the tunes were a little bit...basic? Ordinary? Unspecial? There were some good moments (I really like Ponyboy and it ended strongly) but don't see myself returning to this much.

[Z]

First listen:

It's Okay to Cry works far better as a not-single, really liked it here.

I had a bad headache at the time so a lot of the rest album was not given the ideal listening conditions. Ponyboy really just felt like a rethread of some earlier tracks like Hard to me, although she's definitely gotten better at rounding out the overall vision of the production (the fuller sound is a big plus and I suspect this album benefits hugely from decent headphones), it didn't impress me at all on first listen beyond that, successful but not at all likeable.
Faceshopfront (guessing the name) seemed a lot closer to fully getting the mix of abrasiveness and danceability down, iirc there were some really nice elements of 90s dance and garage music mixed in. I think this was the track where I was thinking "this feels like the first time someone's gotten this kind of thing right after about 30-40 years of trying". The dumb lyrics annoyed me a bit, and I know they shouldn't have cos it's nothing out of the ordinary for her, they just had that vibe of a thing you'd see being projected in the tate modern and roll your eyes at.
Immaterial is a peach.

The rest blurred together (honestly most of it might be mangled into shopfrontface in my head right now).

[Z]

So at this stage I quite like most of the songs but the album doesn't flow for any more than two or three songs at a time. It's probably better than a Sophie album had any right to be but I find it very hard to view it as a good album.

[alan nagsworth]

So at this stage I quite like most of the songs but the album doesn't flow for any more than two or three songs at a time. It's probably better than a Sophie album had any right to be but I find it very hard to view it as a good album.

A bunch of people have been saying this but honestly I really like that dissonance. The delicacy of the opening track blasting into Ponyboy and Faceshopping is thrilling to me, the middle tracks work really well and those last three tunes blow my goddamn head off in particular. Works wonders for me!

[Misspent Boners]

Im with nagsworth on this one.

Not gonna argue a greater cause cos i cant be arsed bur this album just works for me. Over headphones it sounds vast and paints a weird and beautiful world that i have no hope of understanding and i love it.

Not looking for an argument but this is dark, ugly, spectacular, and even worse somehow relatable

Ten out of ten

[Misspent Boners]

I fucking love this album. I love every ebb and flow. I live he campiness and overemphasis of it. I love how crispy it sounds through headphones. Incredible