One of the Happy People
Swedish singer Sophia Somajo has re-emerged as Soso and released That Time I Dug So Deep I Ended Up In China, which was written, recorded, produced, and released by her in the comfort of her home. The lo-fi, indie-pop album was released for free via The Pirate Bay with a note from Soso on her website declaring the album-which was released on Soso’s own label “Do It Yourself Bitch Productions”- an “anti-social experiment pushing the boundaries of the music industry.”
On the outside, this record is upbeat and sounds like something you’d hear in a dance club remix. But on the inside, in Soso’s simple lyrics, the album is personal and gets kind of depressing. In her single “Who’s Gonna Love Me” she tells us “everyone I’ve ever cared for has given up on me,” and belts out the haunting question “Who’s gonna love me really now?” in the chorus.
“Happy People” (which has video) starts out happily enough; the lyrics describing a smiling child in the summertime, repeating “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt,” in the chorus (Billy Pilgrim’s famous epitaph in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five), but also says “someone come fix the broken child” and repeats “…that time when I was one of the happy people.” So listeners get the dichotomy of somber lyrics amidst an up-tempo song and a radio pop voice. Things get slightly sensual in “The Balladas Soso” declares herself a “bad girl” asking to be punished for just one night.
She doesn’t sing on every track: “Sab Lackath” sounds deranged and features Soso’s recorded sobs matched up with the beat and she speaks her way through “So I Say Goodbye Before I Say Hello.”
Since it’s free, you might as well check out TTIDSDIEUIC at her website www.youcancallmesoso.com.
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