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Product (Sophie album)
2015 compilation album by Sophie From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Product (stylised in all caps) is the debut compilation by British electronic music producer Sophie. It was released by Numbers on 27 November 2015.[7] 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[a] and a "silicon product" resembling a sex toy.[9]
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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.[10]
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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.[11] 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.[12] The next single, "Lemonade"/"Hard", was released in August 2014.[13]
The singles collection Product was made available for preorder in September 2015. That month saw the release of "MSMSMSM",[14] and "Just Like We Never Said Goodbye" followed on 15 October.[15] The singles "Vyzee" and "L.O.V.E." were released in November 2015 alongside Product.
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Critical reception
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Reviews
The review aggregator website Metacritic gave the album an average score of 74 out of 100, which indicates "generally favourable reviews".[17] 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."[19] 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."[22] 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."[18] 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".[28]
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.[20] 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."[29]
Accolades
MP3 blog Gorilla vs. Bear listed the album as the 12th best of 2015.[30]
In 2020, Spin ranked Product the 25th best album of the decade.[31]
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Track listing
Charts
Notes
- There is no evidence of the apparel line ever being available for purchase. Both the platform boots and sunglasses are part of visual effects artist, collaborator, and fellow PC Music contributor Hannah Diamond's portfolio, labeled as 'SOPHIE - Virtual Merchandise'.[8]
References
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