Album Review/Alt Pop : Sophia Stephens’ ‘Love & Grief’
Sophia Stephens is a singer-songwriter and a contemporary pop artist whose work is marked by her individualistic streak, gaining styles and fiery storytelling. It’s all in the perspectives, lyrical, melodic, vocal. The emotion that she brings, the way she portrays it, and shells it with interesting points of melody, rhythm, and mood. It’s like experiencing the story in a very real way because of how immersive it is. Her latest release is ‘Love & Grief’, an album that explores the powerful connection between the two themes, crossing it over with time, space, inevitability, beauty, memories, and melancholy.
Some of them form like fairy tales, soft, pastel alt folk that branch into dreamy spheres of love and grief. They form in between the stories as silent and subtle characters that influence each moment. In tracks like ‘Up in Flames’, ‘Things Will Never Be The Same’, and ‘Little Things’, we especially see the nostalgic, childhood reminiscent elements. Chunky glitter, DIY intimacy, and a homegrown ache. Detailed with stringy acoustics, swinging neo-classicals, and a full body of vocals that reminds you of Regina Spektor, the tracks make you travel.
We see similar themes in ‘Time Passes By’ and ‘I’m Still Here’, songs that are philosophical contemplative. Crafted with the alt folk flows, they rise into moons, planets, and suns of emotion. There is melancholy leading into a resigned acceptance of the evolution of time, people, places, events, and emotions with it.
‘Love and Grief’ and ‘Beautiful Life’ shimmer with dream pop elements, so incredibly contemporary and modern in its make-up. Sophia’s vocals especially shine, with their profound, smoky frames, backed by roaming harmonies. That soft dimension that exists within that cycle reveals the artist and her intentions behind the album.
On the other end of the spectrum is an alt pop that expands with hip-hop beats, blurry melody lines, chaotic textures, and tunes. In ‘Muscle Memory’, you see it for the first time. The artist’s whimsical asymmetry across the board which she reconciles only with the mercurial pulse of her vocals. ‘Get Go’, and ‘Enough is Enough’ are more dynamic tracks that are sliced with riffs at crucial pop rock points to make it into a fun, anthemic and vibey flow. Listen Now!
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The album is available for streaming on popular sites like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music!
You can listen to ‘Love & Grief’ by Sophia Stephens here -
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