soccer mommy

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.

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.