Sophia describes her musical territory as lying somewhere between Bjork and No Doubt, so I was expecting something quirky with a gritty rock edge. The gritty rock edge is there, but perhaps not Bjork – the production style is more R&B with some heavy guitar thrown in and big anthemic choruses.
Sophia produced this album herself via the production company she started with her partner Philip Levy, Philosophi Productions. Since graduating in Music Synthesis at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Sophia’s been working out of New York, which is where she produced DiSini. She then secured major label support in the shape of Bulletin Music for the album’s release which also signaled her own homecoming.
It would be interesting to hear the kind of music Sophia’s been putting out in New York, because DiSini appears to be carefully engineered for the local market. Lyrically it’s all ‘katakan kau cinta aku’ (say you love me) and ‘tak terbayangi menghadapi hidup ini tanpa dirimu’ (I can’t imagine living my life without you), the kind of sentimental stuff that the kids are gonna love. There’s some catchy material that will no doubt be well received here – Apa Adanya, Dunia Cinta and the title track DiSini are 3 minute pop songs with the kind of oft-repeated phrases that never fail to embed themselves in your head. One might have expected a little more innovation musically bearing in mind her background and credentials – it’s well manufactured, but its all very predictable and quite derivative. But no doubt it will do very well.