Select Frequency #16

Ethically and legally ambiguous edition

For this edition of Select Frequency, I’ve decided to do something a little different, a list of my favorite SOPHIE leaks. As a brilliant and increasingly influential artist, her window of work was unparalleled and far too brief. This holiday season, I’m grateful that we have access to much more than she ever released, unauthorized as it may be. Like many of her fans, I’ve been listening to these for years, and have spent quite a bit of time digging through the many, many songs out there on various accounts and compilations and settling on my go-to picks. To avoid any copyright issues or constantly necessary updates, I’m skipping any streaming/download links here, but these should all be easy enough to find in studio quality or close, without any need for torrents or apps featuring little blue birds. It’s a little more effort, but if you like her music I promise it’s worth the effort.

Artist credits can get pretty messy with leaks, but to the best of my knowledge, all of these are correct. All are produced (or partially produced) by SOPHIE.

1. Kalifa - “Body Mop” (feat. Mat Kastella)

2. Charli XCX - “Bounce” (feat. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu)

3. SOPHIE - “Drop S” [aka “DROP”]

4. Sylvia Striplin - “Give Me Your Love” [SOPHIE Remix]

5. SOPHIE - “Ha!”/”Burn Rubber” (feat. Sarah Bonito)

6. SOPHIE - “I Can’t Not Love You” (feat. Kennedi)

7. Mike WiLL Made-It - “Nothing is Promised” (feat. Rihanna) [SOPHIE Remix] (feat. Young Thug)

8. SOPHIE, A. G. Cook, Finn Keane - “Potion” (feat. Nicola Roberts)

9. SOPHIE - Take Me To Dubai (feat. Pee Girl)

10. SOPHIE - The Way I Am (feat. Cecile Believe)

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Kalifa - “Body Mop” (feat. Mat Kastella)

It’s easy to forget in 2025, a time by which she has already been canonized and often sanitized, but at one point, SOPHIE music was almost universally subversive. In an era when Obergefell v. Hodges hadn’t even passed yet, something as unabashedly queer as “HARD” was absolutely not in the cards for even the weird-experimental-electronic crowd to generally support, fanning the flames of “this has to be ironic, right?” comments far higher than they ever got post-”It’s Okay to Cry.” It’s almost (almost) a relief that “Body Mop” never got an official release, because this is more openly dirty and gay than I think 2015 could have handled. Kalifa orders the listeners to “pop, lock, dip drop” their way to cleaning up the sweaty club, Mat Kastella adds to the chorus and provides a campy self-aware spoken word bridge, and Xeon’s minimalist production ties it all together into something terrifically filthy.

Charli XCX - “Bounce” (feat. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu)

I know I shouldn’t speak for everyone else, but I’m pretty happy with how Charli XCX’s career has turned out. Many have already written on how XCXWORLD’s leak resulted in Number 1 Angel, Pop 2, eventually leading to the critical and cultural dominance of how i’m feeling now and brat. But there’s another reality with a more secure Google Drive where nothing plays out like that, and we can hear a glimpse of it here. In this world, Vroom Vroom EP is just a peek at what the world could expect from pop music, a heartless, discordant, and flawless future, where rhythm is everything. People have been complaining for at least as long as I’ve been alive about how mainstream music now sounds like it was constructed in a lab to be as mindlessly catchy as possible, and they’d be right, if “Bounce” had dropped. It might have been worth losing her discographic trajectory just for that alone.

SOPHIE - “Drop S” [aka “DROP”]

Almost everything on here is either complete, or more or less could have been released as-is. There are many instances of leaks that she clearly wasn’t quite done with, like “Drop S,” which feels just barebones enough for a vocal track to tie it all together. The wonderful thing about Xeon’s work is that even the skeletons of songs are something special. This is plucky, hopeful, dreamy and a bit surreal. It sounds like a good idea quickly written in a notebook, and her notes are better than most people’s formal essays. If you’re enough of a SOPHIE fan to be a.) reading this, b.) listening to this, and c.) enjoying it, it’s time to do yourself a favor and just find a full leaks folder already.

Sylvia Striplin - “Give Me Your Love” [SOPHIE Remix]

Potentially the oldest entry on this list, “Give Me Your Love” was a frequent element in Xeon’s early live performances, probably around the same time she was posing as her own bodyguard. It’s an edit of a fun disco song with a long sampling history, a drop-heavy blast. It certainly doesn’t sound much like her more famous OOEPUI-and-on era, but it makes perfect sense in context of the auditory theme park she was building initially. It’s a thrill.

SOPHIE - “Ha!”/”Burn Rubber” (feat. Sarah Bonito)

I’m cheating a little here - these are two different songs, but “Ha!” so often segued directly into “Burn Rubber” (both live and in some versions of the leaks) that I’m including them together. In my opinion, one is incomplete without the other. “Ha!” almost tricks us into thinking we’re getting a standard PRODUCT-style track, only for “Burn Rubber” to corrupt that beat into something more like “Faceshopping” or “Berlin Nightmare.” Sarah Bonito’s vocals on this are a sort of unblinking matter-of-fact stare, sweetly whispering that she wants to get money, get high, and get out, all in an era where she was best known for “Flamingo” and “Trampoline.” These songs remind me of that brief era where all this PC Music stuff felt like candy-coated hell.

SOPHIE - “I Can’t Not Love You” (feat. Kennedi)

Apparently created as a pitch demo for Rihanna (did you know they were working together?), I think this song is perfect just as it is. It’s very 2017-2019, with production that feels like a midpoint between the crunchy drums of TM88 on “XO Tour Llif3” and what would get branded later on as hyperpop. Kennedi’s impressive vocals and Xeon’s pads and organ stabs pair wonderfully, making something beautiful that deserved to be more than just an abandoned template for a bigger star.

Mike WiLL Made-It - “Nothing is Promised” (feat. Rihanna) [SOPHIE Remix] (feat. Young Thug)

For me, the biggest musical loss with Xeon’s passing is her potential to work more with rappers. Take “Yeah Right,” or her remix of “Nothing is Promised,” a Mike WiLL Made-It/Rihanna song with an extra Young Thug verse. There’s a certain subset of us that drool at the thought of a SOPHIE-produced Young Thug project, but this is as close as we’re gonna get. Rihanna is rapping on here too, doing her best Future impression (he sang the original track, and you can still hear his adlibs), over a beat that alternates between subtle angelic synths and what has since been cynically (if accurately) branded as pots-and-pans production. It’s hard not to hear this and desperately wish we’d gotten more, but I’m glad we can at least hear this.

SOPHIE, A. G. Cook, Finn Keane - “Potion” (feat. Nicola Roberts)

One of many aspects of Xeon’s music I have always loved is the juxtaposition. In one moment, she’ll be discussing how Autechre are her biggest inspiration and the only artist she’d ever give permission to remix her work, and in the next she’s praising Sia and saying her goal in pop music is to make the “loudest, brightest thing.” Her discography is full of these contrasts as well, distilled brightness next to harsh darkness, overwhelming timbres paired with empty space. “Potion” is a particularly clear example of this phenomenon. It’s uncomfortable squelching liquids alternating with beaming rays of light, the most beautiful vocals you’ll hear on stomach-clenching drops that sound like someone converted Jesse Kanda’s art from PNG to WAV.

SOPHIE - Take Me To Dubai (feat. Pee Girl)

Much has been made of Xeon’s ability to create subtle, intricate soundscapes and traverse enormous distances with her queer exploration. I’m guilty of this as well. A writer I deeply respect once gave me some much-needed input when I was working on a somewhat overwrought review for PRODUCT: don’t forget that it bangs. Her music could be (and should be!) discussed endlessly in academic and emotional contexts, but tracks like “Take Me To Dubai” are a wonderful reminder that sometimes it just hits. I get the same kind of thrill listening to this today that I once got from the drop hitting in “Rock n’ Roll (Will Take You to the Mountain).” I’m not saying it’s not that deep - it is, the author made those curtains blue for a reason - but as a listener sometimes its best to just surrender to a crazy beat.

SOPHIE - The Way I Am (feat. Cecile Believe)

Joy and hope are precious things, things that music can sometimes encourage. One of her more seemingly basic songs, “The Way I Am” is a sparkling, glitter bomb of a song that uses a smaller palette than is usual for Xeon’s work. This palette is thrilling, though, a bright and optimistic moment in a complex oeuvre, a reminder that even the little things can bring a little light.