Sophie, the musical trailblazer who tragically passed away in 2021, will be releasing her final and eponymous album, SOPHIE, later this year on September 27 via Transgressive and Future Classic.
SOPHIE has been in the works for years with her brother, Benny Long, with the album being close to completion prior to her unexpected passing. Long — the project’s co-producer — helped finalize the record alongside some of Sophie’s closest associates. “Reason Why” has been released as the first single off the record, and features Los Angeles R&B duo BC Kingdom and German-born singer-songwriter Kim Petras — with the latter honoring the late musician during her Grammy acceptance speech in 2023.
To accompany the album’s announcement, Transgressive released a statement saying that Sophie’s family reached out to them to assist in releasing her final album. Sophie’s family released its own statement explaining why they wanted to put out the project, which can be read in its entirety below:
“When we, Sophie’s family, took our first steps towards bringing this project to fruition we contacted the dear friends with whom she envisioned the album. We wrote, ‘We have been finding comfort in the music Sophie left us, it is a gift that we truly cherish as we try to find a way forward, with Sophie forever at the center of our worlds.
Sophie didn’t often speak publicly of her private life, preferring to put everything she wanted to articulate in her music. It feels only right to share with the world the music she hoped to release, in the belief that we can all connect with her in this, the form she loved most.
This album has always told the story of Sophie’s musical journey, a cacophony of skill and creative vision, eclipsing time and genre. Her unique sound world moves at an emotional level, encouraging the listener to intuitively embrace the ever-evolving landscape of light and dark, soft and hard, to the end of self-love and joyful self-acceptance. Emphasizing contradictions of sound and material, Sophie’s work supersedes the pure aural to create the dimension she dreamed of.
Now, it holds another poignant meaning, it tells a life story, from mysterious unknown, through wild clublands, to euphoric immateriality.
Sophie gave all of herself to her music. It’s here that she can always be found.”
Since her rise to prominence, the Grammy-nominated musician has been known for mixing unconventional pop sensibilities with an experimental approach to electronic music — resulting in the birth of a new genre, popularly dubbed as hyper-pop. Throughout her illustrious career, Sophie has helped in redefining the limits of pop music, with her unique blend of saccharine production and mechanical, harsh instrumentation finding its way from a niche audience to the mainstream over the past few years.
She first came into prominence with the singles “Bipp” and “Lemonade,” and released her first and only solo album, Oil Of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides in 2018. Until her unexpected passing, Sophie worked closely with A.G. Cook and Charli XCX — with the latter releasing a track dedicated to her late mentor in her latest record, brat.
As we anticipate the release of Sophie’s final and posthumous album, listen to the album’s first single “Reason Why” below: