Evergreen

Nine years ago, Sophie Allison was pulling back the curtains on Soccer Mommy. “I know what it’s like to be alone,” she sang, a self-deprecatory promise laying the groundwork for her lo-fi bedroom pop. Back then, Soccer Mommy stripped down lovelorn and defeated songs to just acoustic guitar and roving vocal melodies that seared the heart. She wasn’t the only singer-songwriter working in that vein, but the rawness of her approach earned the teenager a cult following on Bandcamp. While demoing Evergreen, her fourth studio album, Allison knew she wanted to return to that sparse instrumentation. But if 2018’s Clean paired it with the wildly inspired musings of an introvert bursting to get outdoors, then Evergreen uses it for the tranquil reflections of an adult desperate for the security and predictability of her bedroom days.

Across Evergreen, Allison steeps in a loneliness that’s darker than the one of her youth. She’s consumed by grief following the deep, personal loss of a loved one, and everywhere she looks she’s reminded of her absence. On opener “Lost,” Allison admits basic truths to herself—this person’s really gone, their conversations are a thing of the past—but also grapples 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 Mommy fashion, it elicits empathy, even familiarity, as she documents the struggles: sleeping poorly, talking to empty hallways, remembering the sound of her loved one’s voice. In “Dreaming of Falling,” Allison confesses she hears the call of the void on the regular and fights to not give in. “I see from the shadows now,” she sings over a slow guitar riff. “Half of my life is behind me and the other has changed somehow.”

Allison couples these thoughts with the most laid-back, pastoral music of Soccer Mommy’s discography. Uptempo single “M” cushions its guitars and drums so they bounce along softly and ends with a fairytale flute solo. “Changes” drifts like a dream, rendering the feeling of nostalgic pining with romantic violins and cinematic string swells. Evergreen is pristine and light, as indebted to Soccer Mommy’s early sound as it is to the restorative effects of nature—to obtain early access to the album, fans had to stroll through their local parks. But as delicate and straightforward as these songs sound, they’re carefully constructed. Those aren’t field recordings on “Lost,” but the manipulations of a Microcosm granular effects pedal that morphs Allison’s whistling into bird calls, humming into frog croaks, and exhales into gusts of wind. It’s as though to forge through the grieving process, she needed to replicate the oxygen-rich air of the outdoors.