Unpleasant, sometimes icy, but inevitable and – if you look honestly – necessary. It is this thought, clothed in atmospheric dark pop, that the Toronto performer Sophie Tex offers in her debut single “Broken Promises. “Released on April 24 on the Flatcar Records label, the track puts Sophie in a row with the future of dark pop.
Behind the production stands JUNO laureate Ron Lopata, which is felt in the details: the track breathes with muffled drums, viscous synths and empty space between them. The atmosphere “dark” – it stretches like night fog, leaving in the sound a little unsaidness. Against this background, Sophie’s voice is warm, fragile, as if recorded in a half-whisper. It dissolves in the arrangement, holding the listener on the edge between cold and vulnerability. Being an art school student, she constructs emotion with surgical precision. She talks about “distance” that arises between people not physically, but in time. “This feeling of growing up and distancing, when you involuntarily return to those promises that were given, and to what you will never be able to experience together,” shares Sophie.
It is in this “never” that the main magic of the track is hidden: bright sadness and liberation. The song is about the moment when you stop holding on to the past and simply admit: “Yes, it was beautiful, but it’s time for us to move on.” This view of breakup Sophie formulates not alone – Tia Brazda performed as co-author of the lyrics, adding to the story another dimension: a dialogue in which no one remains the same.
Interestingly, the melody was born when Sophie was still a child and sat at the piano. Therefore, childish sincerity shines through the complex, “adult” sound. The combination of fragile vulnerability and rigid, dark edge of sound makes Sophie Tex an artist you want to follow.
“Broken Promises” is the ideal harmony between technical mastery and pure emotion. The melody, invented in childhood, found its form years later. Not all promises are kept – but some still find a way to sound to the end.
Voxwave Magazine: Music, Culture, Interview, Fashion 