As the title would suggest, the latest offering from bedroom-pop mage SOFY offers a charming playbook on not just how to perform magic, but how to continuously source and bottle it with delicious musical density. The whole project feels entirely reminiscent of something a sparrow would pick up, with robust breakbeats and scraps of percussion nestled behind the perfect touches of melancholia. With standout singles such as ‘Wishbone’ and ‘DooYaa’, it is proven that darkness can’t always be outrun, but with the right string of syllables, ordered against the correct backing, it might be possible to calm. It’s all in the alchemy.
You might know SOFY from the colourful chaos of her previous EPs and some of that familiar wordplay and wry humour is definitely still present, but it is certainly more considered and muted to the palette of the first Twilight movie. Of course, there are still the obligatory yelps for a brand deal that have become standard to her sound (in one track alone we’re given name checks for Tesco, Topshop and Nintendogs) but these too are delivered more in the vein of a cat whose halfway through their nine lives as opposed to an excitable puppy. Her every exclamation is sculpted to meet you in your feelings, as familiar as a dusky high street.
Ironically for someone entering their late twenties, How To Perform Magic seems the perfect soundtrack for the walk home from school on those most overcast Wednesday evenings, mid-October, past dilapidated shops you used to love when you were still a child and with the weight of the world as you know it on top of you. That angst in your earphones (wired of course). The drumbeats are almost thick, kicking you in the back of the throat and then soothing you with magically ambient overlays. Not to be cliché, but it really does sound like a witching hour – see especially ‘Cashmere’ and the closing notes of ‘Saturation’. It becomes apparent how those earlier name checks aren’t just appropriate rhymes; they’re devices used to place the listener precisely where the emotion would be ripest. Think of this album as a map of someone’s brain as they navigate suffocating burnout, industry pressures and intense feelings of isolation – we’ve all felt it, granted not for the same reasons and the majority of listeners won’t be doing so on their way home from secondary school anymore, but most of us will have passed a Tesco somewhere in that process.
Perhaps the clearest indicator of who and where SOFY is now, comes in the form of ‘Jealousy’s A Fever’, a ferocious track that plays with the grit and grimness of trying to navigate through your own mind. In its uncanny reverb she incants: “Sticks and stones grow ugly when they’re in your mouth.” This is one of many lyrics that pertain to a restlessness and distaste for the perils of growing up – most of which also find ways to shrug themselves off whether it’s through childhood references like sticks and stones or by joking about “the sugar in my teeth.” Still, its heavy sound seems far removed from the trotting optimism of what SOFY has produced before.
What stands out particularly in this project comparative to its siblings is its ability and confidence in just letting a song unfold. Not only is there the appearance of some longer track times, but SOFY’s need to empty her brain in under two minutes, like dumping noodles on a table, is less obvious (though it did make for immensely fun tracks in her earlier catalogue such as ‘Timothée Chalamet’ and ‘Ashley Cole Type Beat’). ‘5050’ unfurls itself slowly as if made of smoke meanwhile the opening track ‘40 Minute Masterpiece’ is brought carefully to boil through layered instrumentation including snare, wailing electric guitar and a held introductory chord that could’ve reverberated from the minds of Kasabian. The overall sound is clearly born of the same barrel that gave us Chaos & Commotion only now it has matured into the perfect vintage that knows just how to take its time.
This breathing space can also be felt on closing track ‘Alligator’, which might be the best example of SOFY’s ability to enchant mundane experiences with relatability and character. Over gentle guitar, that could realistically nest next to something tinkered by The Verve, she laments watching cartoons at home and shielding from monsters with bedsheets. Again, there’s something delicately juvenile in its acknowledgement that you don’t necessarily grow out of all your fears – you just learn to perform different. In the chorus she confides: “Your big teeth don’t scare me anymore, I’m an alligator.” The intricacy within this song is an incredibly welcome closer to an album that seems to be woven with such serious intent and heady emotions.
This is not to make it sound pretentious or overly grand. At its heart, How To Perform Magic is actually feathered and fun, there is plenty to love in terms of harmonies that you can sync with and levitate in your bedroom and lyrics that the journal-keepers amongst you will absolutely want to scribble down. Not to mention a real softness in many of the vocals, despite what may sit behind them. In the title track, SOFY declares: “I’m a magician, and for my favourite trick, I’ll ruin everything! It’s quite incredible,” this cheeky self-awareness coagulates with the realities of early adulthood like the most potent activator. Maybe the album title is more the Tumblr search you’d make after listening rather than an earnest promise for results.
Much like Arlo Parks, master of poetic conclusions, SOFY doesn’t shy away from letting the narrative speak slowly and concisely for itself. Each song bares its soul and then settles its heartrate so the next one can do the same. Rather than hiding in the shadows, it sounds much more like SOFY is commanding them into shape, one at a time. And, like any good sorceress, she’s addressing her personal qualms with equal reverence for sorrow and simple pleasures.
If you are a sparrow, a recent graduate from the world of adolescence into the daunting lurks of reality, or just a person who still watches cartoons and feels greatly for it, there is definitely something in perfecting the art of performing magic. Amateurs also welcome.
SOFY: How To Perform Magic – Out 25 September 2026 (SOFY)
