Review Summary: A whole new world to the pop music scene.
If you do notice my reviews, I never review bubblegum pop albums, as the genre mostly gives me a negative impression of the repetitive electronic pop sound, the same auto-tuned vocals and the same lyrical themes, such as love, breakup, empowerment, sex, blah, blah, blah, etc. Sure, there are some more exceptional “pop” albums that really stood up, such as
Lorde’s songwriting perfection
Melodrama,
Beyoncé’s sociopolitical head-turner
Lemonade and
Lana Del Rey’s 70s nostalgia
Lust For Life, yet most of them just falls into the same boring formula, not to mention all of the album I mentioned above aren’t bubblegum pop(I would call
Melodrama alternative pop instead of straight-up pop). However, ever since the release of
Sophie’s debut album
OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES, it somehow changed my perspective of the genre itself, as it showcase that the bubblegum pop electronic sound with its typical theme can sound very unique with an ingenious mind of the enigmatic producer Sophie.
What makes
OIL so fascinating is that it brings heavenly comfort to listeners, as songs such as “It’s Okay to Cry”, “Infatuation” and “Is It Cold In The Water？” gives many listeners such beautiful moments, especially those from the LGBTQ+ community, which is not surprising given that Sophie herself is transgender. The first one is an atmospheric lullaby to outcast who struggled with their acceptance from others, especially those who faced their sexuality and gender identity crisis, with comforting lines such as “But I think your inside is your best side”, Sophie’s repeating chorus of “It’s okay to cry” with her androgynous vocals, the ethereally twinkling synths and the cloud-like electronics, it created a pleasant and enthralling entrance to the album like a gate of heaven; the second one may have the heavenly atmosphere that is reminiscent to the opener, but the lyrics are any but, as vocals Mozart’s sister (aka Cecile Believe) was desperate to understand her lover with a rather disturbing vocals, a highly relatable theme for the LGBTQ+ community who are struggle to find their true love: the last one is an euphoric melancholy about those who are in the LGBTQ+, as it describes their discomfort of their own sexuality and body and the lack of acceptance, as Mozart’s Sister sings in despair, “I'm freezing, I’m burning, I’ve left my home”, serving as an undisputed tearjerker. With such astonishingly beautiful moments, it’s no doubt that Sophie already proved herself as one very unique force from the electronic-pop realm to be reckoned with.
However, the producer also knows how to work on multi-dimension by making aggressive sounds and disturbing themes, and showcased her darker side in rather morbid songs such as “Faceshopping” and “Ponyboy”. The former of which is the crunching and chainsawing track that critiques about the producer’s own process of image changing and others, as Mozart’s Sister sarcastically claimed that her face is the front of a shop and she’s real when she is shopping her face, harshly jabbing the reality of the looks-obsessed society nowadays and reflecting the producer’s journey of gender-changing; the latter is the undisputedly raunchiest and harshest-sounding song in the album, as the producer introduces the industrial clanking drums and its friction squeaks to the sound that recalls not only “Faceshopping”, but also
Nine Inch Nails’ graphically sexual “Closer”, and the BDSM-laden lyrics that is reminiscent
Depeche Mode’s “Master and Servant” (If lines like “Lock up the door, put the pony on all floors, crack down the whip” wouldn’t at least raise your eyebrows a little bit, then I don’t know what will), showing that she is not afraid to show off her dirty side. All of these songs just not only exhibited Sophie is capable of creating unlikely ear-bleeding sounds and soul-chilling themes, but also her ability to extend her horizons without sacrificing the integrity and quality of the album.
Sophie also shows that she is able to be fully confident in songs without adhering to the typical pop clichés, as she showed these abilities in songs such as the crowning jewels “Immaterial” and “Whole New World/Pretend World”. The faux-K-pop former is a sassy jab towards critics who tried to define her, as Mozart’s Sister’s auto-tuned spoke for Sophie that she is free to be whoever she wants, which stands as an unlikely summer anthem. Although lyrics such as “I was just a lonely girl in the eyes of my inner child, but I could be anything I want” may sound like words that is fit into generic empowering anthems, the inventive use of auto-tune makes these lines highly memorable, with the repeating words of “Immaterial girls, immaterial boys” serves as a reference (or rebuttal) to Madonna’s classic song “Material Girl”, showing that material pleasure is no longer a majorly important things in this Tumblr generation; the sprawling nine-minute latter is a futuristic epic: The first part is filled with techno-infused electronic blasts beats with higher cutoffs and heavier distortions, metal clanking, the monstrous vocals of Sophie herself about sex, fantasy, future and the anthemic chants by Mozart’s Sister, as she was imagining a, you guessed it, whole new world for just the two lovers; the second part, on the other hand, is song filled with a nebula of heavily reverberated and speed and pitch-altered vocals, clarifying that the whole new world was just a cloudy fantasy like a “pretend world”, all the while remaining the chaotic beats of the previous part and the futuristic siren from the previous part. These two tracks further boasts Sophie’s confidence and big-time personality as not just an electronic pop producer, but a pop star as well, solidifying the album as one of the best electronic pop album in this decade.
Although I would love to say this album is flawless, I couldn’t, unfortunately. In fact, the album actually lacked consistency at times, with the themes of “Pretending” and “Not Okay” can be quite confounding. While the former is only with rambling non-lyrical vocals with ambient electronics, which can confuse some casual listeners about its meanings; the latter is a brief, fractured collage of rubbing noise and aggressive, flashing synths with the repeated lines of “Girl, So, baby, come and try”, “Girl, I believe in you”, which can be too weird for casual listeners who expect a more consistent sound. However, this kind of vagueness and inconsistency can serve as a silver lining, as it gives the album a beauty of fractured sound that many pop albums lacked or did not dare to venture, further flourishing this 40-minute album as an avant-garde electro-pop masterpiece.
In conclusion, this beautifully sprawling album can be quite confounding at times, but it proves that with a new kind of perspective, electronic-laced pop candies can be much more unpredictable and mind-blowing. Such beautifully multifaceted avant-pop gem is an unlikely instant-classic, that is ready to fit in other unlikely electronic classics such as
Massive Attack’s
Mezzanine and
Portishead’s
Dummy. With upcoming artist such as
Charli XCX and the duo
Let’s Eat Grandma (both of which had collaborated with Sophie) are developing their own anti-algorithmic pop, Sophie herself already made it her own with prior singles such as “Lemonade”, and
OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES is the effort that solidify her status as an avant-pop visionary.
