Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides

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Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
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.
Studio album by
Sophie
Released15 June 2018
StudioSoapworld
Genre
Length39:55
Label
ProducerSophie
Sophie chronology
Product
(2015) 		Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
(2018) 		Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides Non-Stop Remix Album
(2019)
Singles from Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
  1. "It's Okay to Cry"
    Released: 23 October 2017[5]
  2. "Ponyboy"
    Released: 8 December 2017[6]
  3. "Faceshopping"
    Released: 16 February 2018[7]

Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides (stylized in all caps) is the only 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.[8][9] The title may be a mondegreen of the phrase "I love every person's insides".[10] 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.[11] A remix album, Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides Non-Stop Remix Album, was released in July 2019.

Singles[edit]

In promotion of the album three singles were released off the album—"It's Okay to Cry", "Ponyboy", and "Faceshopping".[12] 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.[13][14] The video marked Sophie's "first proper public appearance".[14]

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".[15] The third and final single, "Faceshopping", deals with gender, beauty, and the body and features vocals by Cecile Believe.[14] Its accompanying music video distorts 3D renderings of Sophie's face, intercut with strobing images.[16]

Composition[edit]

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.[13] 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.[13][17] "Ponyboy" and "Faceshopping" are playfully aggressive and hyperactive tracks that make use of pitch shifting and have themes of transgender identity and transhumanism.[17][18] 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.[19][1][20][2][3][21][22][23][24]

Critical reception[edit]

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?8.2/10[25]
Metacritic86/100[26]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[27]
Exclaim!9/10[2]
The Guardian[28]
NME[29]
Pitchfork8.6/10[19]
Q[30]
Rolling Stone[1]
The Times[31]
Tiny Mix Tapes[32]
Vice (Expert Witness)A−[33]

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".[26]

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."[19] 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."[2]

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 Pearl's Un-Insides abounds with interludes, passages, and major statements that allow her to dig deeper on the album's second half."[27] 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."[34]

Accolades[edit]

Year-end lists
Publication Accolade Rank Ref.
Crack The Top 50 Albums of 2018
1
[35]
Dazed The 20 Best Albums of 2018
3
[36]
Drowned in Sound 15 Favourite Albums of 2018
3
[37]
Fact Best Albums of 2018
23
[38]
Gorilla vs. Bear Albums of 2018
16
[39]
NME Albums of the Year 2018
23
[40]
Pazz & Jop The Top 100 Albums of 2018
33
[41]
Pitchfork The 50 Best Albums of 2018
18
[42]
PopMatters 75 Best Albums of 2018
13
[43]
Robert Christgau Dean's List 2018
30
[44]
Spin The 51 Best Albums Of 2018
47
[45]
Stereogum The 10 Best Electronic Albums of 2018
1
[46]
The Guardian The 50 Best Albums of 2018
11
[47]
The Quietus Albums of the Year 2018
28
[48]
The Skinny Top 50 Albums of 2018
11
[49]
Tiny Mix Tapes Favorite 50 Music Releases of 2018
1
[50]
Uproxx 20 Must-Hear Pop Albums of 2018
19
[51]
Decade-end lists
Publication Accolade Rank Ref.
AllMusic Decade in Review
-
[52]
Crack The Top 100 Albums of the Decade
6
[53]
Mixmag The 72 Best Albums of the Decade 2010–2019
-
[54][55]
Noisey The 100 Best Albums of the 2010s
60
[56]
Pitchfork The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s
74
[57]
Awards
Ceremony Category Result Ref.
61st Grammy Awards Best Dance/Electronic Album Nominated [58]

Track listing[edit]

Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."It's Okay to Cry"Sophie3:51
2."Ponyboy"Sophie3:15
3."Faceshopping"
3:57
4."Is It Cold in the Water?"
  • Sophie
  • Believe
3:32
5."Infatuation"
  • Sophie
  • Believe
4:40
6."Not Okay"
1:49
7."Pretending"Sophie5:53
8."Immaterial"
  • Sophie
  • Believe
3:53
9."Whole New World/Pretend World"
  • Sophie
  • Believe
9:06
Total length:39:55

^a 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.

Personnel[edit]

Music

  • Sophie – lead vocals (1–3, 6 and 9), background vocals, processed vocals (7), production and mixing
  • Cecile Believe – lead vocals (2–5, 8 and 9), background vocals (1), processed vocals (7)
  • Noonie Bao – vocalsb
  • Banoffee – background vocals (8)[59]
  • Nick Harwood – vocalsb
  • Benjamin Long – mixing, vocal engineering, studio engineering
  • Kota Banks – sampled vocals (6)

^b Vocal performers were listed without specifying whether they were background or lead or which songs they appeared on.

Artwork

  • Eric Wrenn – art direction
  • Charlotte Wales – photography
  • Julia Wagner – set design
  • Coco Campbell – dress design
  • Emily Schubert – design (dress design)
  • B34 – design (textiles)
  • Nick Harwood – creative direction
  • Sophie – creative direction

Charts[edit]

Chart performance for Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
Chart (2018–2021) Peak
position
New Zealand Heatseeker Albums (RMNZ)[60] 6
Scottish Albums (OCC)[61] 61
UK Album Downloads (OCC)[62] 30
UK Dance Albums (OCC)[63] 2
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[64] 20
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[65] 21
US Top Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)[66] 15

Release history[edit]

Release formats for Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
Region Date Format Label Ref.
Various 15 June 2018 Digital download
[8][9]
21 December 2018 LP [67]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Weingarten, Christopher R. (15 June 2018). "Review: Sophie's 'Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides' Is An Avant-Pop Gem". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d Boulos, Peter (19 June 2018). "SOPHIE: Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides". Exclaim!. Archived from the original on 19 July 2018. Retrieved 9 July 2018.
  3. ^ a b Kim, Hans (12 July 2018). "Sophie – Oil of Every Pearl's Insides". PopMatters. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  4. ^ Pitchfork (8 October 2019). "The 200 Best Albums of the 2010s". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 14 March 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2019.
  5. ^ "charts.nz – Sophie [UK] – It's Okay To Cry". charts.nz. Archived from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  6. ^ "charts.nz – Sophie [UK] – Ponyboy". charts.nz. Archived from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  7. ^ "charts.nz – Sophie [UK] – Faceshopping". charts.nz. Archived from the original on 25 August 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
  8. ^ a b "Sophie's 'OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES out now". Transgressive. 15 June 2018. Archived from the original on 16 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  9. ^ a b "OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES by SOPHIE on Apple Music". Apple Music. 14 June 2017. Archived from the original on 18 October 2018. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  10. ^ Copperman, Joshua (14 June 2018). "SOPHIE 'Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides' Stream". Spin. Archived from the original on 17 August 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  11. ^ "Sophie". GRAMMY.com. The Recording Academy. Archived from the original on 1 May 2019. Retrieved 8 December 2018.
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  13. ^ a b c Lhooq, Michelle (7 December 2017). "Pop Producer SOPHIE on Anonymity, Honesty, and Artifice". Teen Vogue. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  14. ^ a b c Ravens, Chal (1 June 2018). "Cover Story: SOPHIE – Earthly Pleasures". Crack Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 May 2018. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
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  19. ^ a b c Geffen, Sasha (15 June 2018). "SOPHIE: OIL OF EVERY PEARL's UN-INSIDES". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  20. ^ Jessie Jeffrey Dunn Rovinelli. "SOPHIE – OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
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  22. ^ "RA Reviews: SOPHIE – OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
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  32. ^ Rovinelli, Jessica Dunn. "SOPHIE – OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES | Music Review". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
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External links[edit]

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