With the release of ” Big Girls,” “Appetite,” “Creme De La Creme,”the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Sophie Stern and her (mostly) solo recording project Sophie and the Bom Boms has quickly become one of my favorite new artists and a JOVM mainstay artist for infectiously catchy hook-laden pop that sounds indebted to the likes of Gwen Stefani, TLC, Phia and others as Stern’s first two singles of late 2015 and early 2016 possess a similar “you can do it girl/girl, that zero and get you a hero/girl, this is a fuckboy free zone/girl, drop that deadbeat friend — or lover” tone and air, paired with incredibly slick and contemporary production techniques.
“Where Do We Go,” Stern’s latest single is a bit of an aesthetic and structural departure from the first two singles that caught the attention of not this site but several across the blogosphere. Whereas the aforementioned “Big Girls” “Appetite” and “Creme De La Creme” were based on infectious and catchy pop hooks, “Where Do We Go” eschews familiar pop songwriting structures. Although there’s a recognizable hook the song focus on establishing a particular mood and tone while also being arguably one of the more introspective songs Stern has released to date; in fact, the song focuses on a relationship that’s a bit conflicting. While being fairly fulfilling, the song’s narrator recognizes that there has been a transition within the relationship that has created some uncertainty within the relationship that has her wondering what will happen to her relationship — and in turn, the rest of her life. As a result, the song and Stern’s vocals convey an equally complex and conflicting array of emotions — namely excitement, worry, confusion, fear and anxiousness — all within a turn of a phrase.
