Soccer Mommy’s fourth album “Evergreen” continues her pattern of re-tooling her sound for each new release. Her last album was more electronica oriented, the new one is more of a no frills recording with instruments like strings and winds in place of synths and her songwriting, in turn, is more heartfelt.
Sophie Allison, a.k.a. Soccer Mommy is dealing with deeply painful emotions of grief and loss in the songs that make up “Evergreen. ” The title even refers to how those feelings never go away even in, and maybe especially in, wintertime. As she has in the past though, the upbeat arrangements on some of the songs don’t reflect the depressing subjects.
One of the tracks is a love song to the main character of the video game Stardew Valley, a goth-girl who hangs around a graveyard. So the grieving theme plays out while she unleashes one of her most uplifting rock songs.
Soccer Mommy’s graceful way of dealing with the loss of loved ones is inspiring and for someone so young to be going through this is, at the same time, devastating. “Evergreen” is a refined transformation of one of the most influential bands of the past ten years.