Evergreen

Nine years ago, Sophie Allison was pulling back the curtains on Soccer Mommy. “I know what it's like to be alone,” she said lilta self-destructive promise that sets the stage for her lo-fi bedroom pop. Back then, Soccer Mommy stripped the songs of loved and defeated songs down to acoustic guitar and wandering vocal melodies that tugged at the heartstrings. She wasn't the only singer-songwriter working in this vein, but the rawness of her approach earned the teenager a cult following on Bandcamp. During dredging Evergreenher fourth studio album, Allison knew she wanted to return to this sparse instrumentation. But if in 2018 Net combined it with the insanely inspired thoughts of an introvert bursting to get out, and then Evergreen he uses it for the serene reflections of an adult desperate for the safety and predictability of his bedroom days.

Opposite EvergreenAlison plunges into a loneliness darker than that of her youth. She is overwhelmed with grief after the deep, personal loss of a loved one, and everywhere she looks she is reminded of her absence. In the opener “Lost,” Allison admits key truths to herself—this person is really gone, their conversations are in the past—but also struggles with feeling selfish for wanting more from someone who gave “until there's nothing left “. Her grief cuts to the bone, and in typical soccer mom fashion, she evokes empathy, even familiarity, as she chronicles the games: sleeping rough, talking to empty hallways, remembering the sound of her loved one's voice. In “Dreaming of Falling,” Allison confesses that she hears the call of the void and struggles not to give in. “I see from the shadows now,” he sings over a slow guitar riff. “Half of my life is behind me and the other half has changed somewhat.”

Alison combines these thoughts with the more relaxed, pastoral music of the Soccer Mommy discography. The uptempo single “M” softens its guitars and drums to gently bounce and ends with a fairy-tale flute solo. “Changes” drifts away like a dream, delivering a sense of nostalgic sting with romantic violins and cinematic strings. Evergreen is pristine and light, as much due to Soccer Mommy's early sound as the restorative effects of nature—to gain early access to the album, fans had to walk in their local parks. But as delicate and simple as these songs sound, they are carefully crafted. These aren't field recordings on “Lost,” but the manipulations of a grainy Microcosm effects pedal that transforms Alison's whistling into bird calls, humming into frog calls, and exhaling into gusts of wind. As if to go through the mourning process, it needed to reproduce the oxygen-rich air of the outdoors.