{"id":941044,"date":"2026-10-21T07:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T07:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/941044\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T07:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T07:50:09","slug":"sophia-stel-the-greatest-album-of-all-time-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/941044\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophia Stel: the greatest album of all time Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last year, Stel scored a TikTok hit off her first EP, Object Permanence, with \u201cI\u2019ll Take It<\/a>,\u201d trying on her best Ella Yelich-O\u2019Connor<\/a> atop some Boy Harsher<\/a> rave stabs. On the greatest album of all time, her voice is less affected yet further out of reach, persistently clouded by AutoTune and sometimes submerged under the beats, so only her sibilants break the surface. It\u2019s like hearing her through an exceptional high, and the way Stel plays with scale and setting will feel familiar to anyone who\u2019s ever K-holed or greened out: You\u2019ll blink and find you\u2019ve changed locations without consciously moving a muscle. The syrupy \u201cWedding Song\u201d sends a piano line sauntering down the aisle, then Stel dips into a slurred, singsongy cadence, there\u2019s a trap drop, and it\u2019s like riding shotgun while she raps along to Barter 6<\/a> and takes hits off her vape. A puff of smoke drifts over to the following track and becomes the plume of a fog machine as \u201cNow I\u2019ve Got a Lot You Know\u201d warps into a post-hyperpop jock jam.<\/p>\n

the greatest album of all time operates on an expansive, unstratified taste profile, one in which Carrie & Lowell<\/a> and 2 SLIZZY 2 SEXY<\/a> hold equal clout. That could be a product of Stel\u2019s peculiar childhood\u2014a deeply religious upbringing (she has used the word \u201cindoctrinated<\/a>\u201d) on the island peninsula of Victoria\u2014but it\u2019s also just what it means to be Gen Z. From one angle, \u201cMolly in the Club\u201d is a continuation of Stel\u2019s 2025 EP, How to Win at Solitaire, where she bitcrushed trip-hop and shoegaze through the narrow channels of her wired earbuds. From another, it sounds like \u201cKind & Generous<\/a>\u201d by Natalie Merchant<\/a>. Stel is hardly alone in her affinity for radio trash\u2014see underscores<\/a>\u2019 U<\/a>; Malibu<\/a>\u2019s \u201cUnited in Flames<\/a>\u201d NTS show; Kelly Moran<\/a>\u2019s ambient Tate McRae remixes<\/a>\u2014but to my knowledge no one else has shouted out LMFAO\u2019s \u201cParty Rock Anthem\u201d twice on the same LP. Stel\u2019s choice of reference points never seems like posturing, though, and she\u2019s learning how to stitch them together while leaving behind the puckered seams that trace her path through the algorithm.<\/p>\n

This is vibe music and that\u2019s part of the appeal. What elevates the greatest album of all time above more standard fodder for pregames and parking-lot smoke seshes is the neon current of romance running beneath its songs. Stel made almost the whole record by herself, in hotel rooms and Airbnbs while on tour, and her littlest production details exude so much feeling it\u2019s like they\u2019re radioactive. A bell tolls at the beginning of \u201cI\u2019ll Walk\u201d; is Bladee<\/a> about to drop in? Is this Stel\u2019s nuptials or her funeral? Turns out it\u2019s both\u2014the death of a bachelor and an engagement party<\/a>. Stel even brings out the string quartet. The two great love affairs of her young life\u2014her partner and the radio\u2014comingle on \u201cBetter Believe It,\u201d a song that could\u2019ve only been made by someone with room in their heart for snap rap and Katy Perry<\/a>\u2019s \u201cHummingbird Heartbeat.\u201d \u201cMy gasoline yeah, the reason I move,\u201d Stel murmurs, caught in the thrall of her own bleary-eyed ballad. Sincerity looks good on her.<\/p>\n