Evergreen - Soccer Mommy: Review

Review by Lavender:

Soccer Mommy is the singer-songwriter alias of Nashville's Sophia Regina Allison. She's released 4 albums under the moniker and each have been met with a hefty helping of acclaim, highlighted by 2020's sample-heavy Color Theory. In my time covering Sophia's music I've thought she is consistently good but never really separated herself from her many indie folk singer-songwriter contemporaries. Tbat was different on her 3rd album Sometimes, Forever in 2022. She teamed up with Oneohtrix Point Never on production for a record that takes a few bigger swings. But the result is a similarly mixed bag that serves up some of my favorite songs of her entire career, but also some of my least favorite. 

Through that lens Evergreen seems like a record that hones in its focus. It's also one I was pretty excited for after hearing the 4 singles. They start off good, "Lost" kicks the album off soft and swaying in the same way many a Soccer Mommy track in the past has been. While it flirts with louder instrumentation here and there it's mostly just played out in the distance without any real eruption, making for an ultimately pleasant song. I also enjoyed "M" straight from the opening refrains which have this sugary little tone to the vocals and a propulsive instrumental sewn in underneath. It gets sweet reverbing guitars added to it which serves as an awesome table setter for the album proper. 

That starts with the excellent "Driver" which may be my favorite Soccer Mommy song to date. It's the first song on the record that really ups the muscle with these thumping drums and electric guitar riffs. Sophia manages to sound cooler than cool on the vocal end, especially with what I think are these moments of faux self-deprecation in the lyrics. It slops across the excellent chorus and lands on a more sentimental final note, punctuating an excellent song. Right before the album dropped we got the final single, the adorable "Abigail." I'm told the song is about a beloved Stardew Valley character and listing to the track's sweet swaying demeanor and adorably literal praises that totally makes sense. Even though at times it's funny to remember that it's about a fictional character I can't perceive the song as anything but embarrassingly earnest and I absolutely love that. 

One of the defining sonic themes of Evergreen is moving on. The album features several references to what I think is a break-up, that clearly serves as inspiration for much of the record. The closer, title track "Evergreen" gives context to the record's name using evergreen trees as a metaphor for somebody Sophia can't stop thinking about. It's a gentle song but one that I don't mind at all as an outro, especially with how revealing it is of the ideas at the record's core. 

Similar sounds pop up on "Some Sunny Day" which features beautiful refrains and charming little guitar riffs. They eventually spin into something much dreamier on the chorus, it's a simple sound but one that works well. "Thinking Of You" is another thematic highlight with dreamy guitars that really do help everything feel so much less precise, in the way memories often do. Sophia absolutely nails the understated vocal performance on the hook even as the intensity rises with these weirdly times riffs making for a very compelling deep cut. 

My other favorite deep cut is "Anchor" which is much darker than anything else on the record and reminds me of some underrated deep cuts from Soccer Mommy's last album. That leads to a pretty thrilling build-up and fake-out after the first verse and by that point in the song, I'm completely hooked. But not every deep cut is quite as interesting. 

In the exact opposite, "Salt In Wound" is one of the most upfront songs in terms of sonic presentation with strings that literally shiver across the mix. It's one of those songs that unfortunately never feels like it actually goes anywhere though. With the vocals feeling so distant the instrumental feels like it should be wandering a little more. Elsewhere there's a pair of slower and dreamier songs that also fail to really click with me. "Changes" is much slower-paced than much of the record though it also dabbles directly in the themes of moving on and retrospecting. It seeks to convey the more painful side of moving on but the hook deploys these breathy vocals that really don't deliver the energy the lyrics call for. And finally, there's "Dreaming Of Falling" a song that does have song dreamy psychedelic tones and a few notable lyrical refrains but fails to really do anything that stands out on the record. 

Despite a few deep cuts that fail to land I think Evergreen may be Soccer Mommy's most consistent and most exciting release yet. She's always been an interesting songwriter but the musical choices on this album finally seem like they back up her talents with quality ideas and compelling progressions. What results is an album singer-songwriter fans will not want to miss, as Soccer Mommy feels like she's lived up to her potential more than ever before on this one. 7/10

For more singer-songwriter check out my review of Nilufer Yanya's My Method Actor