The idea is to distinguish between the stimulus and your own conception of it. Of course, there’s a gray area here (can we ever be fully objective?), but the exercise highlights our tendency to channel what we perceive through familiar narratives and associations, reinforcing our biases rather than having fresh experiences.
Sophia Allison, a.k.a. Soccer Mommy, seems to have embraced the spirit of this process with her new album, Evergreen. The heightened drama of her last foray, 2022’s Sometimes, Forever, has been mostly back-burnered, as have the edgier atmospherics forged by that set’s producer, Daniel Lopatin. Evergreen, produced by the more light-handed Ben H. Allen, is Allison’s most unembellished project. At the same time, it features some of her hookiest melodies and most alluring vocals.
Opener “Lost” eschews crunchy guitars and serrated textures, opting for acoustic strums, ethereal synths, and string accents. The gestalt brings to mind Allison’s 2018 debut, Clean, though her voice has distinctly matured and is more supple than ever. Also, her songcraft has radically evolved over the last six years, “Lost” (and Evergreen as a whole) brimming with hooks that Allen understandably locates in the forefront of the mix. “M” is equally or more infectious. “I feel those hands around my neck / like the truth is killing me”, Allison sings, lamenting a break-up and freefall into agitation. Her melody, however, is so buoyant and pop-informed that a listener finds himself grinning broadly despite the angsty content.
“Driver” includes guitar riffs that recall such 90s stalwarts as The Wallflowers and Drivin N Cryin, but largely unfurls in a spacious soundscape, the guitars dialed down. Allison’s melodic movements and vocal intonations are again spotlighted, as she inches away from her flirtations with rock and post-punk, finding more in common with the bedroom stylings of Jay Som or Lush-era Snail Mail. That said, Allison’s lyrics are more diaristic and her vocals ultimately more cogent.
On “Changes”, Allison’s woeful voice is bolstered by a bright acoustic guitar, creating an effective contrast. Throughout the song, she employs images that illustrate the passage of time (her mother’s graying hair, for example), concluding that “everything will fade to memory” (she might add that soon enough it’ll fade from memory as well). While anticipatory grief is not a new subject for Allison, here she’s more sober, grounded, adopting an almost Zen-like observational stance. In this sense, Evergreen is a milestone set, as Allison sheds the theatrics of earlier work, accepting that what happens is simply happening and not necessarily happening to her.
“Abigail” is another pop gem, Allison’s vocal smooth, crystalline, her melody fluid. As with “M”, a listener finds himself smiling in response to the pop-smithery despite the somewhat melancholy content. The chorus of “Dreaming of Falling” is equally enrolling. “Screaming into the quiet”, Allison declares, describing an anxious, perhaps nightmarish state (the kind of lyric one might expect from Midwife or Julien Baker circa Turn Out the Lights), and yet, the pop-adherent mix and Allison’s melody and delivery are ultimately transportive.
The album ends with the title cut, affirming Allison’s literary sensibilities. When she moans, “She cannot fade she is so evergreen”, she uses the natural image as a metaphor for the lover who has strangely vanished. One also wonders if she, despite her despondent tone, is referring to herself as an evergreen. Despite the losses and setbacks she has endured, she remains quietly determined, persistent, even indomitable.
With Evergreen, Allison’s songwriting skills and vocals are placed squarely on center stage. The sequence may not be as sonically layered as previous work; however, Allison’s melodies are as captivating as ever. Also, if production is often used as a shield of sorts, a way of depersonalizing one’s revelations, it can also, when restrained, have the opposite effect, facilitating a riveting vulnerability. Allison, aided by Allen, blends candor, self-awareness, and well-honed craft, practicing acceptance, stepping into the unknown.
