Sofie Royer Maps the Tension Between Change and Repetition on ‘before/after’

Sofie Royer’s fourth album arrives after a geographic shift that mirrors its theme. The Austrian-Iranian artist and producer left Europe for the American West Coast, working with Stones Throw to refine a sound that has moved from classical training toward club culture and then pop. On before/after, that route settles into 12 songs of glossy alt-pop, built on hazy synths and direct melodic writing.

The title suggests a clean split, but the songs complicate it. “The older you get, the more cognizant you become of certain patterns in your behavior,” Royer says. “So you ask, what will it take for me to stop repeating the same things over and over again? But then you find yourself behaving the same way.” That recognition gives the album its weight: transformation is less a threshold than a loop.

The record doesn’t treat that tension as heavy. Royer’s pop instincts keep the material moving, and the humor and hook-craft prevent introspection from curdling into self-seriousness. The result is a full-length that feels shaped by a specific creative moment rather than assembled for it.