Product (Sophie album) explained

Product
Type:compilation
Artist:Sophie
Cover:Sophie product.jpg
Recorded:2011–2015
Genre:
Length:25:26
Label:Numbers
Next Title:Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
Next Year:2018

Product (stylized in uppercase as PRODUCT) is the debut compilation by English electronic music producer Sophie. It was released by Numbers on 27 November 2015.[6] The 8 tracks on Product appeared as singles released from 2013 to 2015. The album was made available in "silicon bubble cases", and its release coincides with the launch of a line of apparel and a "silicon product" resembling a sex toy.[7]

Upon its release, the compilation was met with mostly positive reviews from critics. In 2019, Numbers announced a re-release in limited quantities in its original format of four vinyl singles, each in a PVC case.[8]

Background

Sophie debuted as a solo artist with the February 2013 single "Nothing More to Say", released via the London-based Glaswegian label Huntleys + Palmers.[9] Its follow-up, "Bipp"/"Elle", had been teased on SoundCloud in the previous year and was eventually released on Glaswegian label Numbers later in 2013.[10] The next single, "Lemonade"/"Hard", was released in August 2014.[11]

The singles collection Product was made available for preorder in September 2015. That month saw the release of "MSMSMSM",[12] and "Just Like We Never Said Goodbye" followed on 15 October.[13] The singles "Vyzee" and "L.O.V.E." were released in November 2015 alongside Product.

Critical reception

Reviews

The review aggregator website Metacritic gave the album an average score of 74 out of 100, which indicates "generally favourable reviews". Exclaim! senior editor Stephen Carlick called the record "a snapshot of an exciting artist whose tightrope walk between sweet and scary, pop and avant-garde, has yielded some of the best singles of the past few years." The Observer described the album as "disruptive, a sound pushing the limits of what constitutes pop and what is just an annoying noise you are inexplicably paying money for." AllMusic's Heather Phares praised the album as "instantly addictive," noting similarities between the album's "uncanny valley version of pop music" and the output of the PC Music label, but describing Sophie's tracks as "even wilder, with sound design and effects that fall somewhere between Spike Jones and Aphex Twin." Sasha Geffen of Consequence of Sound called it "one of the more mischievous music objects under the current atmosphere," adding that "Product blurs the traditional subject/object power relationship of pop music, bending desire as easily as it bends waveforms".[14]

In a mixed review for The Guardian, Alexis Petridis praised "Bipp" and "Just Like We Never Said Goodbye" as "genuinely brilliant pop songs" but accused the rest of the album of "knackered posturing, tee-hee-it’s-meant-to-be-annoying irony, trite stuff about pop’s relationship to consumerism"; he concluded that Sophie was "sneering at" pop music rather than celebrating it. Mark Richardson of Pitchfork lauded the "enduring brilliance" of the album's first two singles, but was less positive about the more recent material and suggested that the album format did the tracks a disservice: "music this compressed and this syrupy is best heard in small doses, before your ear gets tired listening to it."[15]

Accolades

MP3 blog Gorilla vs. Bear listed the album as the 12th best of 2015.[16]

In 2020, Spin ranked Product the 25th best album of the decade.[17]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Rodriguez . Juan Edgardo . SOPHIE: PRODUCT - Music Review . No Ripcord . 23 September 2024.
  2. Web site: Mullen . Matt . How SOPHIE and her Elektron Monomachine changed the sound of contemporary pop music: "Every single thing you hear should feel like something you've never heard before" . Music Radar . 23 September 2024.
  3. Web site: Simon . Noah . The best hyperpop albums of all time . The Line of Best Fit . 29 July 2024.
  4. Web site: Idelji-Tehrani . Saam . Bubblegum pop and PVC dreaming from Sophie . The Line of Best Fit . 2 October 2024.
  5. Web site: Smith . Karl . Remembering SOPHIE, 21st Century Pop Pioneer . The Quietus . 23 September 2024.
  6. Web site: Sophie Announces New Collection, 'Product,' Out on November 27 . Carley . Brennan . 29 September 2015 . . 28 October 2015.
  7. Web site: Sophie Releasing Singles Collection With "Silicon Product" (That Sure Looks Like a Sex Toy) . Gordon . Jeremy . 29 September 2015 . . 28 October 2015.
  8. Web site: Numbers. SOPHIE - PRODUCT REPRESSES. nmbrs.net. 2019-10-01.
  9. Web site: Sophie – Nothing More to Say EP . Orton . Karen . 22 February 2013 . Dazed Digital . 27 March 2021 . 8 August 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200808234855/https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/15703/1/sophie-%E2%80%93-nothing-more-to-say-ep . live .
  10. Web site: Rising: Sophie . Fitzmaurice . Larry . 10 October 2013 . . 7 September 2014 . 4 September 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140904235851/http://pitchfork.com/features/rising/9237-sophie/ . live .
  11. Web site: Dunn. Francesca. 31 March 2016. a lesson in throwing shade by nabihah iqbal. 17 July 2020. i-D. en. 17 July 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200717173721/https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/mbenvy/a-lesson-in-throwing-shade-by-nabihah-iqbal. live.
  12. Web site: Sophie – "Just Like We Never Said Goodbye" . 30 September 2015 . . 15 October 2015 . 15 October 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151015081922/http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/09/sophie-announces-singles-collection-product-shares-msmsmsm-listen/ . live .
  13. Web site: SOPHIE – "Just Like We Never Said Goodbye" . 15 October 2015 . . 15 October 2015 . 15 October 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151015192107/http://www.stereogum.com/1837456/sophie-just-like-we-never-said-goodbye/mp3s/ . live .
  14. Web site: Geffen. Sasha. Sophie – Product. Consequence of Sound. 1 December 2015. 10 April 2016.
  15. Web site: Richardson. Mark. Sophie: Product. Pitchfork. 2 December 2015. 10 April 2016.
  16. Web site: ChrisChris . GORILLA VS. BEAR'S ALBUMS OF 2015 . 2022-11-18 . . December 2015 . en.
  17. Web site: B . K . The 101 Best Albums of the 2010s . Spin . 2 October 2024.