B-Side Guys

Moments of perfect musical synchronicity with visual media are rare. When Netflix’s Temptation Island recently paired a pivotal emotional scene with SOZI’s “Skipping Stones,” it illuminated what makes this LA artist’s work so compelling—her ability to crystallize complex emotions into deceptively simple musical forms.

The track floats in a liminal space between folk introspection and pop accessibility, building a dreamlike atmosphere where resignation becomes a kind of liberation. SOZI’s production choices—ethereal instrumentation that seems to shimmer just beyond clear definition—create a sonic environment where vulnerability becomes strength.

At the heart of “Skipping Stones” lies a paradox: the act of letting go requires intention. “I’ve got days that bleed right into nights/And it goes round and round/Guess that’s just life,” SOZI sings, capturing the cyclical exhaustion that precedes transformation. The water imagery runs throughout—rain that “pours right into my soul,” the waterside where stones are skipped, ripples fading into sky—creating a baptismal quality to the narrative.

What elevates the track is how SOZI navigates between resignation and hope. In the pre-chorus, she offers: “When the puzzle fits in place/Sun will rise and hit erase/It’ll feel like a new day.” This isn’t toxic positivity but earned optimism, a perspective that acknowledges darkness while refusing to be defined by it.

The chorus—”Will be skipping stones by the waterside/As the ripples fade into the sky”—employs a childhood activity as metaphor for release, suggesting that freedom comes not from controlling our circumstances but from witnessing their natural dissolution. The repeated refrain “Time to let it all go” functions as both mantra and permission.

In the second verse, SOZI turns her gaze outward to examine friendship’s impermanence: “I’ve got friends/That do love to pretend/That they’ll always be there.” The question she poses—”Are you ready?”—echoes back to herself, creating a conversation between present uncertainty and future acceptance.

For an artist whose musical DNA contains threads of Florence and the Machine’s dramatic swells and Taylor Swift’s narrative precision, SOZI crafts something distinctly her own in “Skipping Stones”—a meditation on impermanence that somehow feels both weightless and profound.