Sophia Stel is a Vancouver-based singer, songwriter and producer who also dabbles in modeling, and in recent years she has helped push her single “I’ll Take It” into virality and earned a deal with A24’s music label. She says she has been granted complete freedom to pursue whatever she desires on her official debut, a project whose title is deliberately ironic and provocative. Lorde has already taken notice of her and invited her to open for her concerts.
Sophia Johanna Stel explains that with “the greatest album of all time” she aims to project an exaggerated self-confidence, though the remark came from a headline taken out of context, she also treats it with a certain seriousness. She wants to deliver the best pop she can create, and the result does feel that way, even if it isn’t truly the greatest record ever made.
Influenced by the aesthetics of urban pop, cloud rap, hyperpop and, above all, the 2000s club-pop fused with EDM, in the vein of Taio Cruz or the BEP, Stel brings back her synth stabs and glossy, plasticky textures. It’s no accident that LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem” is referenced a couple of times. The outcome is a fairly singular, self-written pop album, convincing less through the strength of its melodies than through its ear for beats, synths, and Auto-Tune.
Across the album it becomes evident that Stel has studied 2010s pop, and obvious club-ready tracks like “Power” or “I Do” come off as pretty effective imitations of mainstream trends—even within her narcotized, dreamlike approach. What ultimately stands out is the atmospheric construction of the sound and the refined taste evident in the production, a quality that, in the era of Guetta, was notably lacking.
The melodies aren’t the most memorable in history, but Stel manages to make the downtempo “Molly in the Club,” the semi-trappy “On My Dick” and the Robyn-esque electropop of “Like a Kite” stick surprisingly well, even as the album’s more languid moments, such as “Better Believe It” or “Wedding Song,” threaten to sag before the final burst of energy in the closing track, “Burn.”
As the third of eleven siblings, Stel grew up in a deeply religious family from which she has managed to escape. Her aim now is to become the biggest pop star of all time, or something along those lines. For the moment, she speaks with confidence when she declares—within the music—about the rockstar lifestyle: “If you’re a rockstar you should have a lot of money; of course I am a pop star, but I’m still very much on the rise.”
