On Oct. 25, American singer-songwriter Soccer Mommy’s new album “Evergreen” was released.
A striking departure from her previous work, “Evergreen” finds Soccer Mommy, aka Sophie Allison, retreating into nature during a period of grief. On the record, the new mindset she has after reckoning with this loss is clear. There’s a distinct sense of ease to the songs — she’s unencumbered by the trivial worries of modern life.
Her music sounds looser and more relaxed than ever before.
“Lost” is perhaps the record’s most explicit expression of grief. She muses on what it’s like to see all the signs of someone’s existence around you, but not be able to communicate with them. The song’s whimsical-yet-plaintive nature recalls the work of Sixpence None the Richer and The Cranberries, making for a perfect opening track that perfectly sets the record’s tone.
On her 2018 song “Your Dog,” Soccer Mommy compared her experience in a bad relationship to being someone’s pet.
She subverts this metaphor on “M,” writing, “I miss you, like a loyal dog, waiting by the door to hear the lock turn.”
The message is clear: She knows this person will never return, but she acts like they will regardless.
In an interview with Stereogum, Soccer Mommy said “there’s two rockers … on the record, ‘cause I can’t help myself.”
Those songs, “Driver” and “Salt in Wound,” skillfully bridge melancholic folk with the noisy rock of her previous records.
“Driver” would be right at home on MTV in the 1990s — an anthemic love song that finds the singer reflecting on her position as the one in the driver’s seat of a relationship. In a cathartic moment of disclosure, “Salt in Wound” is an angst-ridden revelation of the pain that resulted from the aforementioned loss.
The album reaches a high point on “Some Sunny Day,” a deeply felt elegy that traces the singer’s journey of grieving what once was, reflecting on the fact that life moves on regardless, and her ultimate contentment in the knowledge that she will be reunited with this person one day.
On “Changes,” Soccer Mommy grapples with a more generalized loss — growing up and realizing that the world you inhabited as a child has vanished.
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She opens the song with the lines, “My mother’s hair is colored by her age, the house is painted over, it’ll never feel the same, and every time I come here, I’m further away, slipping through my fingers,” evoking the feeling of flipping through a faded book of family photos, haunted by the knowledge that you’ll never get those moments back.
Here, like on the rest of the record, her universal-yet-precise lyrics break your heart and stitch it back together in the same breath.
A pleasantly surprising moment of levity comes on “Abigail,” which the artist described as “an ode to (her) ‘Stardew Valley’ wife” in an Instagram post.
She expresses her admiration for the video game character across an uptempo love song with the joyous cadence of a romcom protagonist.
In her interview with Stereogum, Soccer Mommy explained that she was toying with the idea of writing a love song about a fictional character as if they were a real person — and it worked.
“I ended up liking the song, so I just decided I would record it and just make it a fun one,” she told Stereogum.
In the second half of the record, Soccer Mommy’s tone becomes increasingly mournful; on “Thinking of You” and “Dreaming of Falling,” she wrestles with the knowledge that loss is permanent. This person’s presence will always be there — but how comforting is that to know when all you want is for them to return?
“Anchor” possesses an enigmatic, darker sound not present on the rest of “Evergreen” that crescendos into a plea for a connection that’s ultimately impossible.
The album ends with the title track, in which the artist makes it clear that she won’t let this grief dominate her life forever.
“I don’t wanna be that girl hiding under all my clothing; I don’t wanna feel the same,” she intimates in a subdued, folksy manner that serves as a perfect bookend to what may be Soccer Mommy’s most mature, fully realized album yet.
Elijah Ritch is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. They can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
