Soccer Mommy’s debut album, Clean, received critical acclaim almost immediately after its release – it was featured on over 100 ‘top albums of the year’ lists in 2018, for Christ’s sake. It was bloody good, but Soccer Mommy – aka Sophie Allison – knew she had to improve. She found faults in her debut – discussed in Volume 7’s cover feature. The songs were stoic, and didn’t provide a challenge for Allison and her band when on stage. She wanted to develop as an artist, and color theory shows she has done just that.
Once again, Allison cements herself as one of the finest songwriters of Generation Z. At just 22, her way with words is mature, assured and confident. She captures moods and emotions across the full-length of a song, refusing to use easily-digestible one-liners or quick quips. Allison sets the scene and offers little jigsaw pieces to the listener – inviting you to piece the puzzle together. It doesn’t require too much work though, and the piecing of the puzzle only makes the listen more enjoyable.
She’s more open this time around, growing into her role as a voice for lost souls to cling onto – even if it’s unintentional or even unwanted.
color theory signals her development as a musician, however. Where Clean was slow and stoic – her words, not mine– color theory is expansive and progressive, none more so than 7-minute epic ‘yellow is the color of her eyes’ – a stunning song about Allison’s mother.
The three-part structure of the album – each third represents a colour and a mood – shows her awareness of concept and ‘the full-package’, whilst the production techniques add a time-worn feel that generates the feeling of someone decaying – a message that runs throughout Allison’s lyrics. This is demonstrated perfectly on album closer, ‘gray light’, where the scrawl of a tape being fast-forwarded interrupts. These simple little snippets of production and the way the album was recorded – each recording was ran through tape – generates nostalgic feelings, something Allison intended from the very beginning.
Perhaps the only missing ingredient is a chirpy, indie-pop number, a moment of unashamed a fun, a back-to-basics pop song that Allison does so very well – as proven on Clean, with album highlight, ‘Last Girl’. But whilst there’s no chirpy, fun pop song, Allison still keeps you smiling through the use of humour, most noticeable in ‘royal screw up’, as she sings ‘I’m the princess of screwing up’.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll smile – this is a great record, it’s that simple.
Listen to Soccer Mommy on Spotify and Apple Music. Get the latest edition of our print magazine featuring cover star Soccer Mommy, grammy-nominated Black Pumas, Alfie Templeman and more HERE.
