“Young forever, but I’m also dying,” Sofie Royer sings midway through her latest album, Young-Girl Forever. It’s a striking statement from a musician who has spent years juggling different identities (Boiler Room DJ, classically trained violinist, model, painter, former Stones Throw employee) — that lusting for perpetual youth, particularly as a woman, is just another trap. “In all my records, there’s this theme of me feeling permanently stuck in a coming-of-age,” she explains. “I probably felt more of an adult in my 20s, when I still had an office job. Now that I work as an artist, it all feels bizarre and arbitrary and regressive. It can be a kind of anarchistic existence, where there’s no rhyme or reason to my schedule, so this album deals with feeling anchorless.”
Drawing its name from Preliminary Materials for the Theory of a Young-Girl by the French anarchist journal Tiqqun, the LP contemplates how women are a symbol of consumerism and what it means to come of age. But it doesn’t stop Royer from being playful. Instead of complicating her lyrics with dense critical theory, she executes a coolly delivered collection of shimmering, fun songs that lean harder into new-wave edge and disco. “Instead of clinging tightly to what you perceive as correct — or even real — I think sometimes you just have to turn the lights off and surrender,” she adds.
Read more: The Nilüfer Yanya method
Following the release of Young-Girl Forever, Royer took us through some of the songs that informed her latest project.
Daniel Balavoine – “Lipstick Polychrome”
I could listen to him sing the “Lipstick for the man, lipstick for the girls” line and that instrumental bridge forever and ever.
Jamie Wilde – “Heaven is in You”
I sing about this song in my album’s opener “Babydoll.” The distortion on the guitar alone is worth a thousand listens.
Rick Springfield – “Don’t Talk to Strangers”
Insane pop arrangement.
T. Rex – “Rabbit Fighter”
Holy trinity of lyrics, guitar sound, and echo on the drums.
Part Time – “All Day Long I’ve Been Thinking About Tonight”
I listened to Part Time the most while I was working on this record and writing to it.
Lio – “You Go to My Head”
Self-explanatory choice given that I cover a song of hers on my album, but these synths! That arrangement! Her voice! Also everything John Cale produced on her album Pop Model is wild.
Mylene Farmer – “Ici-bas”
I love her so much. She used to be on the radio so much when I was a little girl, and she’s my No. 1 pop legend!
Falco – “No Answer (Hallo Deutschland)”
Falco forever!
Todd Rundgren – “Can We Still Be Friends?”
Todd is one of my favorite songwriters and musicians of all time — this song is an evergreen to me.
Rheingold – “Dreiklangsdimensionen”
You can probably hear this influence on “Nichts Neues im Westen”!