| Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides | |
| Type: | Studio |
| Artist: | Sophie |
| Cover: | Sophie - Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides.png |
| Alt: | Album cover, depicting Sophie wearing a dress and sitting on a platform in a purple pool of water, in a hazy backdrop with a purple sky. Sophie's dress seems to be made of coloured plastic, a bronze or brass looking choker is around Sophie's neck, and one of Sophie's legs is covered with a green legging. |
| Released: | 15 June 2018 |
| Studio: | Soapworld |
| Genre: | |
| Length: | 39:55 |
| Label: |
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| Producer: | Sophie |
| Prev Title: | Product |
| Prev Year: | 2015 |
| Next Title: | Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides Non-Stop Remix Album |
| Next Year: | 2019 |
Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides (stylized in all caps) is the debut studio album by Scottish recording artist and producer Sophie. It was released on 15 June 2018, through Transgressive, Future Classic and Sophie's own label, MSMSMSM.[3] [4] The title may be a mondegreen of the phrase "I love every person's insides".[5]
The album was met with widespread acclaim by critics and received a nomination for the Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.[6] A remix album, Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides Non-Stop Remix Album, was released in July 2019.
In promotion of the album three singles were released off the album—"It's Okay to Cry", "Ponyboy", and "Faceshopping".[7] The first single, "It's Okay to Cry", was released alongside a self-directed music video of Sophie, naked, singing directly to the camera in a studio setting behind digital skies and rainbow.[8] The video marked Sophie's "first proper public appearance".[9]
The second single, "Ponyboy", was released in December 2017. For its music video, Sophie worked with performance collective FlucT to choreograph "a dramatized ménage à trois".[10] The third and final single, "Faceshopping", deals with gender, beauty, and the body and features vocals by Cecile Believe. Its accompanying music video distorts 3D renderings of Sophie's face, intercut with strobing images.[11]
Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides incorporates an eclectic array of genres and styles including avant-pop, industrial music, glitch music, electro, ambient, dance-pop, EDM, ambient house, industrial techno, drone, synth-pop, Eurodance, contemporary R&B and dream pop.
Cecile Believe's vocals can be heard on all tracks on the album except "It's Okay to Cry", which is sung by SOPHIE, and "Not Okay", which contains sampled vocals from Kota Banks.
The opening track "It's Okay to Cry" is a ballad that begins with Sophie softly and intimately singing with 1980s-style synthesizer arrangements, before the song intensifies and Sophie's vocals crescendo to a wail. It was Sophie's first song as a singer-songwriter, and its lyrics and music video were taken as Sophie publicly coming out as transgender.[12] "Ponyboy" and "Faceshopping" are playfully aggressive and hyperactive tracks that make use of pitch shifting. "Ponyboy" contains references to BDSM, while "Faceshopping" alludes to themes of transgender identity and transhumanism.[13]
"Is It Cold in the Water?" is an electronic song characterized by its synthetic sounds and programmed vocals. The lyrics explore a sense of uncertainty and potential danger, with the repeated question "Is it cold in the water?" serving as a central motif. "Infatuation" is a complex and unconventional pop song. Its production is both beautiful and unsettling, with intricate soundscapes and distorted vocals. While the lyrics are cryptic, they hint at the intense emotions and potential dangers of being obsessed with someone. The song transitions into "Not Okay", an interlude featuring manipulated vocals and electronic soundscapes.
"Pretending" is an ambient instrumental track. It departs from the artist's usual high-energy sound, instead opting for a more atmospheric soundscape. The song builds with layers of shimmering synths, echoing textures, and subtle sub-bass that create a sense of spaciousness and introspection. It is followed by "Immaterial", a pop song with electronic elements featuring vocals by Cecile Believe. The lyrics express themes of self-discovery and breaking free from limitations. The song explores the concept of gender being immaterial, defined by one's identity rather than physical form. The catchy chorus emphasizes the idea of limitless possibility: "I could be anything I want.", thus being considered the antithesis of Madonna's hit single, "Material Girl".
The album's final track, "Whole New World / Pretend World", is a 9-minute long, aggressive epilogue. It features heavy percussion and distorted vocals that repeat with slight variations, creating a sense of constant change within a repetitive structure. The song builds tension and then fades out with ambient noise, reminiscent (though perhaps not identical) of earlier songs from the album, such as "Infatuation" and "Pretending".
Oil of Every Pearls Un-Insides was met with universal acclaim upon release. At Metacritic, which assigns a standard rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides received an average score of 86, based on 22 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
Writing for Pitchfork, Sasha Geffen praised the album as "sprawling and beautiful, while still keeping the disorienting, latex-pop feel of her fascinating production technique" and said that while Sophie's "early singles exhibited a keen feel for economy and a killer sense of humor, OIL makes a bid for transcendent beauty." Peter Boulos of Exclaim! said, "For all the praise that could be heaped on the bulk of Sophie's output, the best that comes to mind is that it sounds like no one else could have made Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides. This is the kind of music that, in 20 years, we may look back on as a pivotal point in changing the trajectory of the pop music sound."
Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Heather Phares compared it favorably to Sophie's preceding release Product, claiming "Sophie is never indecisive as she takes her sounds and concepts to extremes. Where Product felt like a collection of alien pop hits, Oil of Every Pearls Un-Insides abounds with interludes, passages, and major statements that allow her to dig deeper on the album's second half." Joe Rivers of Clash wrote, "Sophie manages to incorporate the personal without detracting from what set her apart in the first place, and it makes for a record that's as affecting as it is thrilling."[14]
| Crack | The Top 50 Albums of 2018 | |||
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| Robert Christgau | Dean's List 2018 | |||
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| Stereogum | The 10 Best Electronic Albums of 2018 | |||
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| The Skinny | Top 50 Albums of 2018 | |||
| Tiny Mix Tapes | Favorite 50 Music Releases of 2018 | |||
| Uproxx | 20 Must-Hear Pop Albums of 2018 |
| Publication | Accolade | Rank | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AllMusic | Decade in Review | |||
| Crack | The Top 100 Albums of the Decade | |||
| Mixmag | The 72 Best Albums of the Decade 2010–2019 | |||
| Noisey | The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s | |||
| Pitchfork | The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s |
Banks was initially uncredited on the album. This has since been changed on most streaming platforms, due to the song containing prominent samples of her vocals from an unreleased collaboration with Sophie.
Music
Vocal performers were listed without specifying whether they were background or lead or which songs they appeared on.
Artwork
| Peak position | |
| New Zealand Heatseeker Albums (RMNZ)[17] | 6 |
|---|---|
| UK Album Downloads (OCC)[18] | 30 |
| Date | Format | Label | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various | 15 June 2018 | Digital download | ||
| 21 December 2018 | LP | [19] |