Soccer Mommy - Sometimes, Forever

Album Review

Jul 12

Soccer Mommy

Sometimes, Forever

Sometimes, Forever lands squarely within the singer-songwriter and indie genres, but experimentation and sonic dynamism pull the album into new territory.

Fraught with tracks documenting singer-songwriter Sophie Allison's becoming, Soccer Mommy's third studio album, Sometimes, Forever, sparkles with raw yet subdued emotionality.

Sweeping harmonies, both vocal and instrumental, accompany nearly every song and shine in contrast to the darker themes and intimate subject matter of Allison's lyrics.

Released on June 24, 2022, by Loma Vista Recordings (Action Bronson, Korn, Iggy Pop), Sometimes, Forever has post-90s nostalgia in its DNA.

Shot through with subtle emotion and rife with experiments in hybridity, the Nashville artist's latest album provides an apt soundtrack for what's shaping up to be a solemn summer.

A deeply personal and eloquent departure from earlier entries in the Soccer Mommy catalog, Sometimes, Forever lands squarely within the singer-songwriter and indie genres, but experimentation and sonic dynamism pull the album into new territory.

Particularly interesting is the use of minimalism in the opening of the track "Unholy Affliction" that later shifts to incorporate a polyrhythmic drum dynamic, hinting at heaviness and mystery with shades of both sludge and post-grunge indie rock.

Further examples, like "newdemo" and "Darkness Forever," mine intensely into late 20th century underground musical styles and blend disparate genres to bring contemporary energy to revered forms that have maybe grown a bit stale. “Newdemo,” with its minor chord changes, evokes an early Bowie-esque sensibility sonically and lyrically (climate change, global cataclysm, etc.).

"Darkness Forever" contains aural elements that mimic and contextualize the juxtaposition of stripped-down goth and shades of Norwegian Black Metal.

Furthermore, the track "Following Eyes" might feel at home in The Cure's Pornography-era catalog, though it lacks the bouncy, techno danceability.

Also, tracks like "With U," its mildly psychedelic opening and chord progression transitioning into the sweeping, euphoric music of the spheres that permeates the album, exemplify the emotional and psychological internality that Sophie Allison uses to characterize her work.

But there is perhaps no track that exemplifies the spirit of Sometimes, Forever more than its first single, "Shotgun," which feels simultaneously timeless and comfortably at home in a modern context.

With dates booked through the end of the year to support an ascendant album, starting with the Day In Day Out Festival in Seattle (Aug 12) before heading to Europe and the U.K., then back in the U.S. to finish the year, Soccer Mommy is heading toward an exhilarating point of an emerging artist's career.

Allison's collaboration with producer Daniel Lopatin also marks an exciting choice to push her songwriting creatively. His experimental electronic work under the alias Oneohtrix Point Never is rife with a similar sense of nostalgia as that evoked by Allison's, and their collaboration feels both natural and progressive.

Like Allison sings on "Bones," the third single released from Sometimes, Forever, in this album, "I feel the bones of how we used to be.”