soccer mommy

really good sheryl crowe-core (riyl: land of talk, courtney barnett)

https://sopharela.bandcamp.com/

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2415750108_16.jpg

this is really nice, thanks for sharing! hits the spot

so good, right?

need to get Brad on this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGBxa9bAbo8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouem6cFXJvA

good song

I'm six songs into Clean so far and wow it's amazing

It is. I'd been kind of lukewarm on her stuff previously, but "Skin" has been life-changing on this particular Friday.

so far i'm liking this less than Collection, as a front-to-back listen. some of the slower soft ones don't drive me wild and there are too many of them. love the taut garagey of 'your dog', 'last girl', 'cool' (which are the best songs she's ever written imo). incredibly talented songwriter

She’s great but I think this “band name” is a really poor choice, at least for an artist of her style. Maybe for a zany teenage punk band or something.

i agree. i'm not normally a "can't get past the name" person - in fact it always annoys me - but Soccer Mommy is not a good choice here.

I'm ALMOST past the name "Car Seat Headrest" (a band I love)... lol

Collection had a lot of modest pleasures, but Clean is a huge leap forward. She really leveled up everything for this one; better songs, more surprises, striking production.

I like her but honestly if I hadn't stumbled across her video, I would've never checked it out based on the name

name rules fyi

more surprises, striking production.

i don’t like the hard stereo pan in the opener

She and her band are playing dates w/Liz Phair, which almost seems a little too "on the nose" for a pairing... probably good exposure, tho

Name is good, I was wrong. Where should I start with her music ?

There’s only two albums, no?

3 albums and some EPs i believe

Clean is such a good record

Heavy Mirah vibes

Still maintain a lot like Mirah. Love it

great record

yes. been listening to it a lot this week.

same, not sure why but like it hits the spot - rocks out, has lots of nice mellow tracks-chill rockers

does not lose the momentum, which is kinda a problem i have with the snail mail record - too many slow tracks near the end deflates the balloon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTc1w32Vbeo

this new one is really pleasant

I wish I heard some of the piercing sadness of Clean in the new songs, but will withhold judgment until I hear the full album -- maybe she's releasing the stuff that sounds different first, trying to avoid getting pigeonholed.

"Circle the Drain" is catchy but I'm not crazy about that super-clean production style, which for some reason (???) makes me think of the second Third Eye Blind album.

way to get me to listen to this bernard

wonderful song

Really loving this album.

so good. serious mary lou lord vibes on a few songs too.

I like a lot of the melodies and stuff on this album, but the energy is so down across the entire thing. I miss the louder, chunkier moments that bubbled up on Clean.

My initial impression is that I like it a lot, but I need to give it some time.

I love this

Not sure how much space I have these days for this type of music , but this is really great. I would have lapped it up 25 years ago

Surprised by the small number of posts in here. Clean was a favorite.

This one can be a bit slow paced (feels like side A could use a couple of 3 minute tracks to get this thing moving) but I really like the tunes. Nice melodies that recall Phoebe Bridgers / Jay Som / Japanese Breakfast / Snail Mail.

i haven't heard any of her other music but this album is great

"circle the drain" is quite easily one of the best indie rock songs of the year, "night swimming" and "yellow is the color of her eyes" are also knockouts. both surprised and not to find out that the producer she worked w/ also did the last war on drugs record -- this album is shimmery and enveloping in a similar way to me. generally i just love the textures throughout.

she's a very direct and efficient lyricist, love that kind of writing. "gray light" has some incredible lines

I really like "Royal Screw Up" but my daughter assures me that it's because I tend to like songs of that type

ready to fight over this album

No need, it's a good one

swam back to the shoreline
and found that all you left me was a note
i read it slow
you said that you had loved me
but you knew that you would end up on your own
a sinking stone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oji9RtJkNu4

the gentle fog of noise enveloping her in this performance ._.

i want someone who's following a dream
someone like me
who feels the air inside their body running free
i want the breeze

well the moon is in the water
and i'm dancing with the current and my clothes
are on the beach
you stay with the earth
cuz you don't understand why i would wanna freeze
the irony

we learned to dance, and i was swaying all alone
you're stiff as stone
you lock your heart up in a place i'll never know
the distance grows

Loved this album until the lockdown put me in a different headspace.
Still, first time in ages an indie rock record has grabbed me like this, in much the same ways as those of my youth (ok boomer)

Ya I'm with you baaderonix -- I was super-excited in the run-up to the album release,really looking forward to seeing her play later in March to kick off the spring concert season, and then.....

I guess my attachment to the record must have been a superficial one, because it got sloughed off as totally as a snake's shed skin. Except that's not an accurate metaphor, because the self that emerged is smaller than the one I had before.

Anyone listening to the singles series she's been releasing?

One of these songs sounds like "Lose Yourself"

Dug this out after a long while and it still hits the spot. Maybe even better suited for this weird late summer.

it's so good, i want to listen to it all the time

Definitely a standout album of the year for me. I still haven't absorbed all of the lyrics yet - its all about the textures of the songs for me.

I'm already nostalgic for the first time I heard this album just before lockdown. It feels like that was a complete different age. What a weird year.

Jordan I dipped into this because of a rec you made on twitter, ty

:)

i checked it out under similar circumstances so i'm happy to pass it along

Yep this very good album was a J0rdan inspo for me too

i love this album from 1997

lol, yes

crawwwwllllliiiiiing in myyyyyyyy skiiiin
crawwwwllllliiiiiing in myyyyyyyy skiiiin

crawwwwllllliiiiiing in myyyyyyyy skiiiin
crawwwwllllliiiiiing in myyyyyyyy skiiiin

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, January 28, 2021 10:32 AM (seven months ago) bookmarkflaglink

were you at the show tonight brad? i was thinking of you when they played that song & added the whole like synth led jammy outro that blew my socks off

i was not there but the person i'm dating was!! which inspired me to listen to the album last night. i am jealous of both you and her for getting to experience that synth outro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EO18qI8r3I

kkb remix of "rom com 2004" is cool

New album produced by.. Oneohtrix Point Never!?!

not a combo that really makes any real sense and i would not have really guessed based on the single

Makes as much sense as opn working with The Weeknd I guess. Dude trying to expand his palette / resume I guess

did anyone listen to the single from last year

obv shotgun is more normal than rom com but the choice doesn’t feel out of nowhere

i liked that one a lot more than this one

it's an interesting choice for a lead single considering how immediately hooky "circle the drain" was, this feels more jagged and smeared by comparison. but i do like it, you can def hear lopatin's synth work in the mix in a cool way

Really like Shotgun, so I went back and tried Color Theory again and...it's still mostly a bore. Clean was such a great album, though, and I dig the sonics and structure of Shotgun, so I'm cautiously looking forward to the new LP.

"Shotgun" is incredible and to me a lot more immediate than anything she's ever done before

Weird. For me,it’s been a real grower. Was disappointed when I first heard it. Thought it sounded pretty generic. But that twangy beat made me come back and I now pretty much love it. Don’t hear any trace of OPN though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfNHwboQ0yU

very portishead s/t to my ears. lives way more up to "soccer mommy produced by opn" than "shotgun." i love it :)

otm with the Portishead comparison. I didn't much like Color Theory outside of "Circle the Drain" which remains brilliant. Definitely eager to hear more of this.

This album is going to be the best album

not entirely sure what to make of this, obvious mezzanine/third vibes. i do think the drumming is pretty sick.

i've heard the album. it's very textural and production centric, as opposed to color theory which feels far more hooky & songwriter-driven by comparison. as a color theory stan i haven't quite wrapped my head around it, but there's some great songs no doubt. i think "unholy affliction" is one of the more dissonant ones but i have only listened a few times. there's some good rock songs tho

she plays this live version of "crawling in my skin" that has this noisy freakout outro w/ feedback swirling everywhere and drums pummeling and synths diving in and out of the mix. there's definitely a throughline from this to the album as well. this version on KEXP is a bit truncated compared to when i saw her show but the sound is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS0gznOYZUw

"rom com 2004" is the one that makes this all make sense to me, it feels like some of these songs are disintegrating in real time - hooks and choruses strong enough to withstand their own deconstruction, but lyrics and feelings enhanced by this sense of chaos and crumble around them

Is that a new drummer on the KEXP recording? It gives the whole band more drive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1kaQCMB1q8

another stunner

honestly prob my favorite thing i've heard from her barring my favorite song of all time "crawling in my skin"

Yet another banger

I've just bought a ticket to see her live in autumn based on that song.

ooh this one's good

Oh good, so it wasnt just me then! Agree that it might be her best song.

after the other two singles i feel like i have a firmer idea of what "shotgun" was doing and i'm now very excited for this album, seems on track to be her best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ildebdJsr0A

i am gonna love this album

update: i love this album

feels like an alt rock record you would’ve liberated from the depths of a used bin in the '90s, but like the dust and sticker residue on it have somehow crept into the sound of the music itself

production on even the most normal-sounding song here is crazy psychedelic, i fucking adore it

I, too, adore the sound of this album. I’m trying to think of a point of comparison?

oh wow the end of "don't ask me" !

this absolutely delivers

Absolutely, every song is charming

texturally it's kinda like a more successful version of machina/the machines of god, tracks like "this time" and "wound" if they weren't so flat

The goth and shoegaze textures are great. It's like she's imbued them into her own distinctive songwriting, rather than merely aping the sound like so much modern shoegaze does.

Overall tone is crisp and murky in equal measure. Love it.

The lyrics on 'Still' slay me.

I hear Garbage as well. Great album.

Lol I was thinking Machina/Machines of God might be a reference point but did not have the emotional energy to confirm

“don’t ask me” is perfect

Ok I'll admit that she was an artist I had "written off/pointedly ignored because of their name" but I checked out "Shotgun" anyway and my god, this has one of the most euphoric choruses I've ever heard. It's all about the dreamy pastel chord progression and melody, but the production touches are perfect too--the stuttering snare fill when she sings "shotgun", the sweet shiny OPN Juno squiggles. The rest of the album sounds pretty good so far too. Brad otm here:

feels like an alt rock record you would’ve liberated from the depths of a used bin in the '90s, but like the dust and sticker residue on it have somehow crept into the sound of the music itself

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, June 23, 2022 4:25 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

I feel quite a few people who have previously ignored Soccer Mommy will check the new album out due to the OPN connection and be pleasantly surprised by the quality of Allison's songwriting.

It's definitely her best record but the production is proving divisive on the SM stan Reddit. Personally I think it's a perfect balance - OPN does just enough to add gritty gloss to the songs, but never tramples on the songwriting. See 'I Feel it All the Time' - Lopatin is smart enough to know Juno synth arpeggios don't belong here. He steps back and lets the song shine.

the production is incredible idk what anyone could have a problem with. it's not a huge departure either, just feels like a fully realised version of the textural stuff from the last album

I agree. It feels like a very logical progression, and if we didn’t know that there was a name producer involved I don’t think many people would be thinking of it as a big shift (other than to note how great the record sounds).

I love the 90s and I love Opn but this record didn’t do anything for me

It's definitely her best record

Still prefer Clean, but this one's pretty good.

Yes this is quite excellent!!

I don't understand why Pitchfork didn't BNM this. At all. I guess because it's not jazz or experimental ambient or MOR R&B.

The old Pitchfork would have lapped this up.

She kinda nailed it with "Circle the Drain," and imo "Shotgun" while a great song with a dope hook needed some similar arrangement flourishes from "Circle the Drain" to keep it from sounding so repetitive by the time the third chorus arrives. I'll probably enjoy the record as a whole when I get around to it.

I love the 90s and I love Opn but this record didn’t do anything for me

I love the '90s, never heard 0pm, and this def does nothing for me... I don't hear much in the way of "songs" (and I guess the production isn't necessarily my cup of tea, either)

Hard to reconcile the genius of opn with this mediocre bullshit

bye bitch

^That phrase was my exact thought when I just saw Musk was terminating his Twitter bid

it’s an album by soccer mommy not opn ffs

once again being bowled over by "night swimming" being one of the best break up songs ever written...

i love the way she establishes this feral desire, situating herself among the elements, broken away from society, gesturing at feelings and environments that transcend the human experience...

I want someone who's following a dream
Someone like me
Who feels the air inside their body running free
I want the breeze

Well, the moon is in the water
And I'm dancing with the current and my clothes
Are on the beach
You stay with the earth
'Cause you don't understand why I would wanna freeze
The irony

...and then threads it back into modern interior life, unable to run wild, fumbling to articulate her feelings as her partner is distracted by technology...

We learned to dance, and I was swaying all alone
You're stiff as stone
You lock your heart up in a place I'll never know
The distance grows

Try to break your walls
But all I ever end up breaking is your bones
Bruises show
Standing in the living room
Talking as you're staring at your phone
It's a cold I've known

...and then back to the dark beach and cold water, bringing the story full circle from the first verse, but also tying the stone metaphor together just in this stanza, in general i just love the imagery here, the idea of hoping that this exciting, spontaneous moment will re-electrify your connection w/ this person, only to come up for air and be faced w/ the truth... the idea of water being a place that you can be cleansed and reborn, except she emerges freezing and alone, no rapture to be found...

You watched me sink beneath the water like a stone
And then let go
I came for air and found that I was all alone
I should've known

Swam back to the shoreline
And found that all you left me was a note
I read it slow
You said that you had loved me
But you knew that you would end up on your own
A sinking stone

perfect song

Great post, thanks - never paid that much attention to her lyrics

booming post j0rd

<3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oji9RtJkNu4

the gentle fog of noise enveloping her in this performance ._.

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, June 24, 2020 4:00 AM (three years ago)

still

Bleak House is incredible. Krook exploding is perfect.

saw her last night opening this little tour of shows w/ no band

firstly, she is incredible in this format, i've enjoyed the previous shows i've seen w/ the band but her on solo electric guitar playing up the shoegazey reverby noisy aspect of her sound is another level for me

she played 5 new songs -- evergreen, m, lost, salt and wound, driver. she put a clip of "lost" on IG yesterday, it sounds like she's going back towards the sound of her early records.

whoops did not mean to press enter there ... continuing on

https://www.instagram.com/p/C7pUt-3SE27/?hl=en

she also posted when announcing this tour that w/ her new music she wanted to "focus on the songwriting and keep the production more organic." further, at the show last night she didn't play anything off 'sometimes, forever' nor did she once mention it or even mention that she wasn't mentioning it. she played mostly songs from the debut and before, w/ some color theory songs (sounding as vital as ever i swear to god) peppered in there too

i have to say "lost" kinda blew me away, i'm really excited for the new music. "salt and wound" also stood out but they were all good. i wouldn't normally wanna take too much away from solo live renditions of unreleased recorded songs but she seems to be signaling pretty heavily that it's a back to her sweet spot kinda album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dns6C3MTauI

interesting direction for her. you can really hear the sheryl crow, FM radio kinda influence as this gets going. kinda love it

reminds me of the ballads from jagged little pill and honestly not much music reminds me of those!!!

production is weirdly blown out though that might be youtube compression

oh yeah that's youtube compression

Thanks for the write up! Tbh, I don't care much for the first album (or at least I would place it far below the 2nd and 3rd) and going back to basics isn't really what I wanted from her. Her choice to make obv but I'm wondering what triggered it.

it's fine but i miss the sonic ambition of the last album

i kinda wish she'd do something a little more uptempo, though mostly just because when i saw her live last year i wished her songs had a bit more energy overall, it was kinda underwhelming

I was there for the same solo show Jordan was at in Queens and also thought it was a strong performance that left me excited for a new album. It did feel odd that she didn't play a single thing off Sometimes, Forever, but I was happy to hear stuff from Collection. She seemed like she was in a chill, funny mood which was charming, given that her music can feel pretty stark.

I think "Lost" is really lovely and seems to be less of a "lead single" type of song--maybe more of something to just set the tone for the LP or even a one-off. I don't know much of her biography, but I remember the Pitchfork feature from a couple years ago said her mother had been dealing with a terminal illness for years and it seems like this song is dealing with all the emotions wrapped up in that, or perhaps in a loved one's death. Having dealt with that myself, the song definitely landed with me and the strings were a welcome touch, even if I'm not necessarily craving a whole album of songs that sound like this.

New album coming out in October. As expected, she's stripping things back. Not what I really wanted from her but new single sounds breezy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbS2shn50MY

i like this a lot more than "lost"

the album showed up in my inbox & the production flourishes of the first two singles are mostly a bait and switch. it's largely a dreamy reverby guitar album and there's some really killer songs imo

oh hell yeah

to say that i was thinking of you heavily at times...

like i'm genuinely a fan of "lost" in its recorded form but the solo guitar version reduces me to a puddle. the rest of the album hews closer to this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_JmdIReUcc

Hold on, are you then saying that the rest of the record is MORE stripped back than the singles?

well i'm not sure if i agree that the singles are stripped back. i know it's sorta how she has described the album but "lost" to me is quite ornate, it has to have more instruments on it than anything she's recorded previously. the production on the album is also just so rich and full even when the songs get pared down in terms of instrumentation that it's hard for me view it thru the lens of being stripped back. the first two songs hint at like a clairo-esque direction w/ those orchestral flourishes but that's a red herring. there's an ambient synth haze swirling together w/ guitar reverb kinda thing happening that doesn't sound too off of 'color theory' to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4SWK4DH6ZU

this one's really nice

why does popular indie rock still sound like something that was written to soundtrack a montage scene on Party of Five

salt in wound to think of you is pressing on the bruise
and pretty words just turn me blue
and leave me far too soon

album's solid enough but i don't love it like the last one, i miss the sonic ambition. songs are still good though

Washington Post interview (& not linked by me here a New Yorker review)

https://wapo.st/4hnMjXx

"Driver" sounds just like Belly or Julianna Hatfield to me, but there's nothing wrong with that

still no pfork review, kinda strange

(ftr I started listening to this and found myself losing interest pretty quickly, I should give it another shot but maybe that's the feeling over there too)

This sounds great but veers at times into “adult alternative” territory

Yeah, this is a little more sleepy than I'd hoped, especially after how much I loved the last one, but it still has some great moments. "Abigail" is gorgeous.

i never clicked w/ the last album. i admire her experimentation but it feels like that album was more about exploring different production ideas than it was about the songwriting. i love 'color theory' so much that i was prob always bound to be let down by the follow up, but it feels like an ill-fitting album in her catalog to me. i still find it interesting that when she did the acoustic shows this year she played zero songs from 'sometimes, forever.' perhaps that's just a reflection of how she needs/wants to perform the songs and less of a repudiation of the album, but even in that case it still aligns w/ my feeling that it's an outlier album

i think that this album is a bit too ornate for its own good in the first half -- i still think the version of "lost" that she performs on solo electric guitar is a total knockout whereas the recorded version pushes it into a different sonic/emotional territory that doesn't hit as hard. but i think the second half of this album is the strongest stretch across any of her non-'color theory' albums. "abigail" -> "thinking of you" -> "dreaming of falling" -> "salt in wound" just feels like a total sweet spot for her, imo, leaning back into the 90's rock sound of chiming guitars and atmospheric synth haze that she nailed on 'color theory'. she gets back to foregrounding lyrics, melody & riffs on those songs and as much as i respect her restlessness when it comes to production, i don't think she needs to do much deviating from that space to make some of the best rock music around

She's cancelled her European tour. I was hoping to see her in Warsaw next Wednesday 😔

she was good in Glasgow last week, but it did feel a little flatter than when I saw her before. She's a popstar I find myself worrying about - touring an album this heavy must really take its toll and I hope she's alright.

seeing her show really cements just how many excellent songs she's written. Most acts would kill for a song like "Circle The Drain" or "Shotgun" and for her they're like, things you play near the start as you build up towards the even bigger crowdpleasers.

Apparently she dropped off the lineup of a festival in Amsterdam rather abruptly, I hope she's okay.