SOFY – Chaos & Commotion Review

Chaos and commotion is not just a new piece of music from Sofy but how some live their life. Who else would be cramming chocolate croissants into their mouth, trying to stick their shoes on and reviewing an EP all at once? All while thinking about what to buy a pal for their birthday. Life in the fast lane was never meant to be like this, but with Chaos & Commotion as a backdrop to the madness, things feel more complete. Sofy has stunned before with smart workings of lad culture condensed into articulate and responsible tracks hitting out at the common norms. Chaos & Commotion is, unsurprisingly and thankfully, more of this, pulling from exceptional instrumentals and a confident vocal style.  

Opening duo Yoyo and Ashley Cole Type Beat bring out the anxieties of modern life and an immediate throwback to World Cup nostalgia in equal measure. Exceptional starts on Yoyo give SOFY more than enough range to work through some fine lyrics, with exclamations and neatly paced instrumentals filtering in and out. Noisy brilliance to open this debut LP, filled with trust in SOFY’s style. A finger on the pulse of pop culture relevancy always helps too, hence the aptly titled Timothée Chalamet. The Dune star has a chokehold on the globe and has done so for nearly a decade now. Time flies when adoring American movie stars. There is something innocent and retrospective around this, filtering through a period where idols were built and maintained through the heyday of Hollywood and its golden generation.  

Chaos & Commotion accidentally pushes that to the front of the mind, and it makes for a neat addition to those former film journalists listening in at home. There is plenty of time taken to relay lost love also, as socks presents so nicely. There is never a moment SOFY forgets her core audience, but throughout Chaos & Commotion is a keen commitment to pushing the fold of what listeners should expect from these moments of relationship anxiety. Breathing Exercises creates a new dramatic, the uncertainty that casts a shadow. Followed up nicely by the slower and intimate beats of No Drama, SOFY takes on a bold and noticeable shift in these latter moments.  

Rightly assured by its stylish lyrics and working the same beat as Lily Allen did and Pixey does, SOFY finds credible space as the potential next big thing. Her wordplay and upbeat stylishness verges on cheerful at times, dragged down and back into a reality her listeners will no doubt appreciate when the lyrics are listened to that little bit closer. WET PAINT and its repetition is a neat flourish which starts squaring up the rest of the record for a close. These are the moments listeners love, the constant style and flourish SOFY presents through her debut collection of tracks is a delight. She does herself a disservice calling this a mixtape – this is stronger than many albums released this year. He’s Not You and Supermarket confirm it, and there it is. Closed and finished with. What a piece of music, a perfect antidote to feral illnesses which creep through the not-quite-sealed windows of a new build flat.