Evergreen
“How long is too long to be stuck in a memory?” That eternally unquantifiable question defines Sophie Allison’s fourth album as Soccer Mommy, a record marked by loss and grief. *Evergreen* marks a perspective shift from Allison’s 2022 album *Sometimes, Forever*. “When I started writing songs for this album, I was very clearly in a completely different headspace and wanted to write something that felt more intimate and up front, and not kind of shrouded by having all this fun making it,” Allison tells Apple Music. “The feelings that I was expressing on this album were a lot about loss and grief, because that’s what I was going through at the time—a lot of changes. It was scary and different, and everything felt kind of sudden. So I was just grappling with all of that.” The result is a richly melodic work that, with the production touch of Ben H. Allen (Animal Collective, Belle and Sebastian), feels cavernous in its scope while retaining intimacy. There are moments when Allison cranks up the volume and rips into the riffage—witness the chunky chords on “Driver,” or the shape-shifting guitar lines that stretch across “Salt in Wound”—but elsewhere Allison achieves a magic trick of making nuanced, close-to-the-vest songwriting sound one million miles wide. The closing title track is draped in stretches of strings not unlike generational counterpart beabadoobee’s work, while on “M” she laments, “I hear your voice in all my favorite songs.” It’s a raw admission on an album full of them.
Sophie Allison’s fourth album is steeped in a loneliness darker than that of her youth, pairing raw reflections on grief with the most laid-back, pastoral music of her career.
With her melodies as captivating as ever, Soccer Mommy's delivery remains transportive.
Sophia Allison wrestles with the weight of love and grief on haunting fourth Soccer Mommy album, Evergreen
As nuanced as it is captivating, Sophie Allison’s fourth album as Soccer Mommy is a still photograph of loss, heartache, and the hope in between.
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Nostalgia holds profound space in Sophie Allison’s music, but on her fourth album, ‘Evergreen’, she rejects its over-romanticisation; the title track
Soccer Mommy wrestles with profound loss on her new record, which is more organic and grander than anything she has released before.
Evergreen by Soccer Mommy album review by Atlin Lester-Serfani for Northern Transmissions. The singer-songwriter's LP drops on October 25th