ALBUM REVIEW: Sophie Yera - Final Girl

Sophie Yera's Final Girl is a swirling, atmospheric alt-pop extravaganza that makes for a compelling debut.

Reviewed by Alex "Ash" Han

AUTHOR'S NOTE: As always, before reading this review, please support Sophie Yera and stream Final Girl! Sophie's Linktree contains links where you can stream the project on all platforms.

 

I WAS A STRANGER TO THE MUSIC of Sophie Yera until we crossed paths (albeit as strangers, at least at the time) in a listening session two or three semesters ago, in what was then called Collegium. It was there that Sophie's version of the Gnarls Barkley track "Crazy" first saw the light of day. As a listener at the time, I remembered being intrigued by the decision to open one's introduction to the MTech community with a cover song, but also being no less impressed by the radical restructuring of the track into a rendition that felt very much unique. I believe it was the following semester (or maybe the following academic year? Jesus, I'm getting old & my memory's slipping) when Sophie made her debut on the MTech Invasion stage at last November's Invasion 2.0, followed by a sequel appearance just last month at Invasion 3. On both occasions, she showcased a strong stage presence marked by a high-fashion aesthetic and a plaintive vocal style, accompanied by enticing glimpses into the material which today finds itself at the focus of this article. Sophie Yera's debut LP, Final Girl, comes three years after her 2021 4-song EP Bad Trip. At a compact seven tracks in length, the album was nonetheless accompanied by an impressive promotional effort, consisting of not only both Invasion performances but also a sizeable Instagram promo run that drew plenty of attention from inside MTech. Having remained mostly unfamiliar with Sophie's music outside of the limited exposure I'd had from sharing the stage with her at Invasion, I went into this project more intrigued than anything to see how her live stage presence would translate to the studio, and just what that would mean for how listeners would begin to perceive Sophie Yera as an artist.

The LP opens with "Crazy", a swirling, atmospheric reinterpretation of the 2006 Gnarls Barkley classic. Sophie brings an airy, disaffected vocal performance over luscious synth pads and a steady sub bass—definitely a heavy vibe switch from the original's spaghetti-Western string samples and dusty drum groove. The song's structure also appears to have been altered slightly, with an extra prechorus added near the beginning, introducing a steady four-on-the-floor kick drum augmented by some distant reverb. On first listen, I wasn't sure I was a fan of the slow burn restructuring of the track; I found that I missed the relentless, pounding momentum of the Gnarls Barkley original, and the vocals had a slightly telephonic, sibilant quality to them that I didn't love. Right before the track's chorus, though, there is a moment where Sophie's lead vocal trails off into nothing as the pads hang in the air a bit and the kick pulse fades away into a reverby soup—the track lets us breathe for just a second or two before the drums come crashing in and Sophie's distorted, keening belt roars into focus. The beat drop on this track goes super hard; I love the sound selection of the giant, cinematic pads and the pseudo-trap drums that harken back to the dusty, apocalyptic quality of the original song. Sophie's vocal sound is also really nice here, fed through a distorted amp sim that gives enough harshness and character to really advance the unhinged, off-the-rails nature of the performance without sacrificing too much intelligibility. This one chorus is all we get, however, as the track soon drops into its outro section, buoyed by an octave-shifted vocal that takes us down and out of the song. As much respect as I do have for the decision to open the album with a reinterpretation of a song that is as much of a timeless classic as this one is, I found Sophie's take on the song to be novel and tasteful, keeping the track's meteoric chorus and rapturous atmosphere while also radically reformatting its structure to accommodate the long buildup and cathartic drop into the chorus. I did feel as though the engineering on this track left a little to be desired—the mix feels a little hollow, with plenty of sub bass and an abundance of high-end frequency content, but without much in the way of low mids to fill the track out and give it a solid foundation. Nonetheless, the track does make for a strong opener, albeit one that left me curious to hear what Sophie's own writing would bring to the album's narrative & style on subsequent tracks.

A steady kick drum and distorted, trippy synth bass opens the album's second track, "Crystal Lake", which also features contributions from Space Hotel. Sophie contributes a number of stacked layers—a distant, legato series of backing vocals, a breezy, apathetic lead vocal, several almost-intelligible whispers that tease the listener with snatches of lyrics here and there. I was really struck by the sound design on this track, which combines retro, warm, slightly wobbly synth patches with punchy, modern, in-your-face drums to create a convincingly vintage horror-movie-like atmosphere. Sophie's delivery here reminds me of a cross between Elizabeth Fraser and Tate McRae, combining current post-Billie Eilish and Lizzy McAlpine airy whisper-vocals with an almost-shoegaze set of inflections that obscure and smear lyrics in favor of creating a cavernous, glassy soundscape. I found that I had trouble understanding a lot of the lyrics for this song, which likely meant the narrative of the track escaped my grasp somewhat, but this wasn't necessarily a point of contention with the track for me. Its approach to creating an atmosphere through sound design nevertheless left an impression with me, and provided an intriguing first glimpse into Sophie's artistic identity.

"Gone Girl" switches up the vibe again, opening with a woozy, washed-out minor acoustic guitar recording augmented with either static or the sound of distant rain. Soon enough, Sophie's trademark heavy kick pulse and ominous synthesizers enter alongside, providing the track with an instant increase in scale, propelling it to titanic, cinematic heights. Sophie delivers a deadpan first verse, discussing a breakup through a disaffected veil that belies a complicated emotional context underneath the surface. The track's next section sees her drift into a lilting, airy falsetto through a hefty dose of Autotune, giving her a robotic edge that I really enjoyed. The touches of reverby, tremolo-heavy electric guitar were a really nice touch that lent a distinctly James Bond sort of feel to the track's soundscape. The track's last verse, where Sophie's spoken deadpan and Autotuned head voice trade lines in tandem, felt like a solid way to end off the track. I nonetheless felt a little confused by this one, specifically in regards to its structure, or lack thereof; on first listen, I found myself having been fooled multiple times into thinking I was hearing a chorus, only to later realize that none of the sections I identified repeated or formed any sort of tangible hook. I suppose I respect Sophie's commitment to through-composed songwriting, but I think on a track like this, I would have preferred the lyrics to be a little more intelligible in order to understand the emotional arc a bit better. I still very much enjoyed Sophie's experimentation with regards to her vocal chain on this one, and her ability to create a swirling, dark soundscape remained as strong as ever.

Track 4 is called "Drew's Interlude", and opens with a true gut punch of a line ("I can't keep you safe from me"), which is perhaps one of my favorite lines on the album. The soundscape on this track is a little more superficially upbeat than on the tracks that preceded it, with plenty of sparkly synth chords and tinkly bells providing an interesting contrast to the song's firmly minor-key aesthetic. The subtle open hats, steady kick, and subdued clap samples lend the track a really strong groove, perhaps the most danceable on the album so far, drawing some sonic influence from The Weeknd and Dua Lipa's experimentation with the dark '80s/new wave aesthetic. The dynamic motion of the track is also maintained really well, with elements constantly dropping out and reappearing to create clear sections and movement. The bridge also sees one of my favorite vocal moments from Sophie on the album, as her vocal steadily builds towards plaintive, pleading high notes that sound excellent as she asks, "Am I the cause?" over and over. After listening a couple times, "Drew's Interlude" is a personal highlight from the album for me. The track's strong chorus, heartfelt lyricism, and danceable groove all merge together into a juggernaut pop song that made a very strong case for Sophie's unique talents as a songwriter and performer.

"This album is a reflection of my experiences of the past few years of college… Musically, I was inspired by Grimes, Lil Peep, Ethel Cain, and Gorillaz." –Sophie Yera

 

"Till Death Do Us Part" keeps the dance aesthetic going, opening with heavily-sidechained synth chords that articulate sweet seventh chords over a subdued, chill drum groove. Sophie's vocal layering came through especially nicely here, with some tight doubles reinforcing and bulking up the lead vocal without smearing over the lyrics too much; the overall styling reminded me a lot of MGMT and Empire of the Sun, an aesthetic Sophie pulls off remarkably well. The track's chorus is also really strong, with a slight switch in the chord progression providing us with a sense of forward movement to accompany the repetitions of "I think I'm free". The second verse also brings a handful of fun vocal moments, such as the literal pause for breath after the line "I feel like I can finally breathe", which put a smile on my face! "Till Death Do Us Part" was another favorite of mine, representing the album's continued shift towards a heavier dancepop aesthetic. The track's catchy melodies & sublime production together make a rather strong showcase that Sophie can hold her own as a dancepop artist as well as in the dark & atmospheric soundscapes that outlined much of the album's first half.

The album's penultimate track, "BLACKOUT", opens with a minor guitar line that very much reminds me of early 2000s post-grunge bands like Fuel and Puddle of Mudd, pairing a woozy, broken-chords pattern with a soaring, distorted lead. The pairing of the guitar line with the thick sub and flickering trap drums makes for a combo I actually really enjoyed, again calling back to The Weeknd's mid-2010s output. Sophie's octave-doubled vocal, paired with a distorted, pitch-shifted version of itself, creates a suitably demented atmosphere without reducing intelligibility too much. Her lyrics discuss the sensation of being too drunk after a night of clubbing, a subject she manages to portray in a uniquely slinky, menacing manner on account of the track's dark musicality and reverb-heavy percussion. With the track's catchy repeated chorus of "I can't feel anything at all" and strong verses combined with the grungy trap instrumental, this track is a definite vibe switch that nonetheless gels perfectly with Sophie's aesthetic. "BLACKOUT" was another definite standout track for me, and one that I'll definitely continue listening to down the road!

The album closes with its title track, which opens with a dramatic string orchestra and synth pads together in tandem as Sophie whispers distantly from the background. On first listen, I wish I could understand the whispered vocal a little better in order to get at the narrative of the album a little more. The synth pads support while at once ceding the spotlight to Sophie's theatrical vocal performance, as she meditates on every iteration of herself she's been through in order to reach this point. Like the opener, this track embraces a sort of slow burn aesthetic, staying in a stripped-back downtempo soundscape for much of the track's duration before bringing in some drums and upping the pulse in the track's outro section, which sees Sophie distantly belting out some sustained melodic lines in a way that almost reminds me a little of Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig in the Sky" off of The Dark Side of the Moon. Part of me does wish this outro soared a little bit more—I found myself really wishing for a greater sense of catharsis, whether that means more aggressive drums, a more beefy instrumental, a more freeing vocal performance from Sophie. As much as I do respect the decision to keep it a little more constrained and lowkey, I felt like it didn't fully deliver the sense of closure I wanted to really wrap up this album. All the same, though, maybe leaving it slightly open-ended is intentional, and serves a larger purpose I'm not fully seeing—so I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Either way, this title track does an excellent job at stripping back the layers of persona progressively built up over the album in attempt to remind us of Sophie's very human vulnerabilities once more.

Looking back on Final Girl as a whole, I think it makes for a commendable debut project that does a lot to solidify Sophie's artistic identity. The moody, synthy, atmospheric production and detached, slightly deadpan vocal stylings over steady, resolute drum grooves paints a clear picture of the under-the-surface emotional turmoil that drove this album's creation. Indeed, Sophie's skill in using sound design and production to create vivid images is a potent strength of this project. The use of reverb in combination with dark synth patches creates a consistent vibe that matches much of the promotional material for this project—heavy with grays and blacks, the life & color squeezed from the landscape like the sickly pale of the recently departed. Sophie's vocal style descends from the school of Lorde, and more recently, Billie Eilish, embracing a similar teen Goth/alternative pop aesthetic in its detachment from explicit emotion. Additionally, as a writer of melodies, Sophie proves to be capable of penning catchy melodic shapes that do a consistently excellent job at hooking the listener's ear. In this way, Final Girl does a lot to highlight and showcase many of the artistic strengths that make Sophie Yera unique.

 

"The album explores themes of adolescence, love, friendship, and betrayal through the lens of the final girl archetype. I was really inspired by this trope found in horror films because I'm a cinephile." –Sophie Yera

I do have a couple points of contention with the project, though, some more nitpicky than others! I think that the project could have started and ended more strongly—the use of two slow burn-style tracks for both the opener and the closer was something that I felt robbed the album of some of the energy of its opening entrance and the closure & catharsis of its stage exit. I found that the vocal mixes on many of the tracks, especially the more atmospheric tracks ("Crystal Lake", "Gone Girl", the title track, and the opening half of "Crazy" most of all) had a tendency to lean towards being telephonic, sweeping out a ton of low-mid frequency information and accenting sibilant frequencies in a way that ended up making them slightly piercing. Under normal circumstances, this might not have impacted my enjoyment of the project too much, but the aforementioned vocal mixing decisions in synergy with the liberal use of reverb had the combined effect of smearing out Sophie's lyrics, rendering them quite difficult to understand on a lot of tracks. Try as I might across multiple listens, I was unable to discern what was being said at many moments throughout the project. As a result, I'm afraid that the higher themes and overarching narrative of this project mostly eluded me and remained beyond my understanding—which is a shame, since the stated premise of Final Girl being based upon the eponymous horror movie archetype is an intriguing one, and I wish I was able to delve further into Sophie's exploration of that idea. Of course, there are exceptions to this issue; "Till Death Do Us Part" and "BLACKOUT" especially were generally easy to follow, but this felt like too little material for me to draw sweeping conclusions about the themes of the project as a whole. (It's also likely no small coincidence that the three tracks I found most intelligible are likely my favorites from the album overall.) It pains me to say, but I feel as though I am still uncertain about what exactly Sophie's story is. While Sophie's showcase of her artistic aesthetic and sonic image is a very strong one, the resultant lack of insight into her songwriting and lyrics leaves something of a blank spot in the album's lasting impression—which is a part of this debut project I cannot ignore.

Still, though, there are a great many things this project does well. Maybe this is just me waxing nostalgic for a moment, but I actually found that it reminded me a lot of my own debut project in a lot of ways: rough around the edges in some areas, sure, but no less earnest & heartfelt in its illumination of what the path ahead might look for Sophie. The album's forays into uptempo dance on "Drew's Interlude" and "Till Death Do Us Part" were undoubtedly my favorite moments on the project, followed closely by the exploration of grungy pop-trap on "BLACKOUT"; all three tracks show very exciting glimpses into very catchy alt-pop territory that feels very her, and teases an artistic space that Sophie can well and truly make her own. I remain ever more excited to see what she brings us from here, and will wait eagerly to see which direction she chooses as she continues to forge her own path.

Personal enjoyment score: 7 out of 10

Standout tracks: "Crystal Lake", "Drew's Interlude", "Till Death Do Us Part", "BLACKOUT"