THE FUSE

I t’s a seasonally ambivalent day at Brooklyn’s Herbert Von King Park, and Vancouver-based singer and producer Sophia Stel is in need of a lighter. She’s smoking Canadian cigarettes, which, as I hand her a light blue Bic, she describes as “more polite,” taking after her fellow citizens’ pleasant disposition. She’s in town doing press ahead of her album release party this week. The record in question is called the greatest album of all time, and it feels like watching a shy kid blossom in front of a talent show crowd.