Soccer Mommy Releases ‘Circle the Drain,’ Announces Color Theory Details

Soccer Mommy, the Nashville-based pop-rock project of singer, guitarist and gifted songwriter Sophie Allison, has formally announced the follow-up to 2018’s widely acclaimed debut LP Clean. Color Theory is out Feb. 28 via indie label Loma Vista Recordings, and it builds on two years of constant refinement and evolution through highly visible touring dates, opening for major players like Kacey Musgraves, Paramore, Stephen Malkmus, Wilco and, recently, The Jesus Lizard. 

Color Theory was mostly written on the road, but it was recorded right here in Nashville at the Berry Hill studio Alex the Great. As explained in a profile by Joe Coscarelli in The New York Times, Color Theory’s thematic construction also hits close to home. It’s divided into three parts — a blue section for sadness, yellow for illness and gray for loss — all focused on examining elements of Allison’s life story, which the 22-year-old musician has increasingly lived in public.

“I wanted the experience of listening to Color Theory to feel like finding a dusty old cassette tape that has become messed up over time, because that’s what this album is: an expression of all the things that have slowly degraded me personally,” Allison says in a release. “The production warps, the guitar solos occasionally glitch, the melodies can be poppy and deceptively cheerful. To me, it sounds like the music of my childhood distressed and, in some instances, decaying.”

The songs “Lucy” and “Yellow Is the Color of Her Eyes” are set to appear on the album, and we also get to hear a third track from the album today. The music video for “Circle the Drain,” directed by Atiba Jefferson, follows Allison on a lonesome trip through a desert town, where she meets skaters Sean Malto, Jake Anderson, Curren Caples and Nicole Hause, who’ve snuck into a water park that’s closed for the season. Despite the reckless nature of the action, there’s a focus on making connection as a way to ward off the darkness. The lyrics are honest about coping with depression: “Try to seem strong for my love / For my family and friends / But I’m so tired of thinkin’ / ’Cause I’m chained to my bed / When they’re gone / Watching TV alone / Till my body starts achin’.”

You can visit your favorite local record store or check this handy link to preorder the album. Keep an eye Soccer Mommy’s website for updates on Allison & Co.’s world tour, which stops at Cannery Ballroom on May 9. Tickets are $20-$22 and go on sale Thursday, Jan. 16 at 10 a.m. right here.