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Chained To The Rhythm: The Month In Pop

Sussing Out Sophie’s Posthumous Album

7:45 PM EDT on September 30, 2024

Every posthumous album carries the burden of being a career retrospective, a summation of a body of work that can no longer develop. Sometimes these records are like that on purpose, as an artist’s estate curates their unreleased work into a eulogy. Other times, it's unintentional: The artist left a fully-formed concept behind, and collaborators must somehow make the most of an unhappy accident. Sophie, the first and likely only posthumous album by the late Scottish producer (though future individual singles or even longer EPs are basically guaranteed), is very much the latter sort of record. That probably explains why it's been so divisive among critics and fans – understandably so, but also undeservingly.