City Weekly readers may recall a few months back when we profiled Sophie Blair, a local synth-pop artist with two fantastic EPs under her belt. Innovative, bop-ready and even glitchy and lo-fi at times, her dynamic music still exists in a realm that is pretty far flung from other synth pop artists, especially hyperpop. But that didn’t stop Sophie Blair from taking on the work of a hyperpop icon who she shares a name with. On Dec. 31, she released her cover of “It’s Okay to Cry” by the late SOPHIE, who passed away suddenly and tragically last year. On the track, Blair’s vocals are filled with raw emotion, as though the incredibly affective song is her own, and her signature strings are employed creatively in loops—her own way of taking on the endlessly innovative and boundary-pushing production of SOPHIE. And it was a groundbreaking process for Blair, too, to honor the work of SOPHIE with this cover.

She says of the track, “I’ve never produced a song before—I barely know how to hook up mics—but sitting in front of a laptop for hours recording each string loop, comping each rough vocal pass, and placing each drum sound felt like, in the smallest, most insignificant way, my gift to her. … All the drums are SOPHIE samples; the beautiful words, chords, and message are hers. She says it so beautifully: ‘it’s okay to cry.’ It’s okay to grieve at our limits, at our gender, at the unfairness of life and relationships and industries and mental illness. Her voice has, over the years, provided such comfort to me: ‘just know you’ve got nothing to hide; it’s okay to cry, it’s okay to cry.’ I want to echo those words, now, to you.”

Certainly at this time, where the world reaching new heights of uncertainty and chaos, we could all use such comforting words, and permission to grieve. Find the song on Spotify, and follow Blair on Instagram at @sophiexblair to read her full statement on the song.