SOPHIE's "Faceshopping" Says the Artificial Can Be Authentic, Too

At this point it's an understatement to call SOPHIE something like 'one of the most interesting producers' in music right now, because she's way beyond that. She's inventive, and in a climate where drops and big choruses rule, her music is that rare, thrilling thing: unpredictable.

Following the wildly different singles "It's Okay to Cry" and "Ponyboy," SOPHIE's back with a third offering (presumably from an upcoming album, though nothing has been officially announced as yet) entitled "Faceshopping," which you can hear above. It's full of the glitchy, metallic, outwardly fake-feeling sounds that we've come to know from the producer, and lyrically, it's also an embrace of the artificial.

The track has a simple vocal refrain: "My face is the front of shop / My face is the real shopfront / My shop is the face I front / I'm real when I shop my face." It's a message about not being ashamed of the artificial, and which announces in filthy, synthy style that what appears as fake can be just as authentic as what we view as real: it's simply about adjusting your own stuck-in-the-past perception. This balance between artificiality and authenticity is at the core of SOPHIE's entire musical project – as Sasha Geffen wrote of her sound for Vulture late last year, "It’s made from software, but it ripples through your body all the same." "Faceshopping," then, might be her fiercest mission statement so far.

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