Color Theory

インディー・シーンで話題沸騰中のシンガー・ソングライター、サッカー・マミーが2年振りとなる2ndアルバムをリリース!

これまでにヴァンパイア・ウィークエンドやザ・ジーザス・リザード、ケイシー・マスグレイヴス、フィービー・ブリジャーズのサポート・アクトを務め、コーチェラ、プリマヴェーラ・サウンドなど名立たる大型フェスにも出演、現在インディー・シーンで高い人気と注目を集める米ナッシュヴィルのシンガー・ソングライター、サッカー・マミーがセイント・ヴィンセントが所属する＜Loma Vista＞へ移籍し2年振り2作目となるスタジオ・アルバム『color theory』をリリース!

本作はレコードショップを始めピッチフォークなど各方面で高い評価を獲得した前作『Clean』に続きゲイブ・ワックス(ザ・ウォー・オン・ドラッグス、ベイルート他)がプロデュースを手掛け、ラーズ・スタルフォース(マーズ・ヴォルタ、セイント・ヴィンセント他)がミックスを担当。楽曲の多くはツアー中に書かれ、彼女の地元である米ナッシュビルの＜Alex The Great＞にてレコーディングを実施。

ソフィー自身が思春期から抱えている精神的な健康の問題などを反映した内容になっており、きらきらと煌めくようなメロディーとは裏腹にダークな内容となっている。大きくわけて3つのテーマ/色があり、＜青＞は悲しみや憂鬱さ、＜黄色＞は身体的な病気や感情の起伏、＜灰色＞心の闇、虚無感、喪失感を表現している。

Though Soccer Mommys Sophie Allison generated buzz as early as 2015 with her introspective, then-self-recorded tracks, the project made its official debut three years later with Clean, a critically lauded set of hooky, heartbroken songs with lyrics that were notably vulnerable and relatable. That more hi-fi release was produced by Gabe Wax, known for his work in the studio with acts like the War on Drugs, Cass McCombs, and Frankie Cosmos. The pair reunited for the follow-up, color theory, Soccer Mommys Loma Vista debut. The title comes with a thematic key code; the album is divided into three sections represented by blue, yellow, and gray, each with its own associated topics and emotions (sadness, mental and physical sickness, and darkness). Her terminally ill mother is a major presence on the record. Importantly, however, knowledge of the thematic design isnt necessary to connect with the material here. Color theory opens with Bloodstream, which quickly establishes a grunge-lite, full-band, 90s alt rock-indebted sound and head-bobbing, midtempo rhythm. (Its her first album to be recorded with her live band.) Meanwhile, detached, double-tracked vocals deliver lines like Ive barely left my room in the past week and Happiness is like a firefly on summer evenings/Feel it slipping through my fingers but I cant catch it in my hands. Elsewhere in the first section, the melancholy Night Swimming submerges Allisons conversational remembrances in layers of sustain and field recordings. The second section opens with the summery, uptempo -- and anxiety-ridden -- Crawling in My Skin, which leads to the centerpiece, the over-seven-minute Yellow Is the Color of Her Eyes, a moving power ballad of sorts about her mother. To close, the three-song final section wraps with the eerie, loss-themed Gray Light, whose spacious arrangement includes percussive electronics, rippling distortion, staticky hiss, and other effects alongside guitars. It ends with the words Im watching my mother drown. Setting its heavy lyrical poignancy aside, with a production design partly inspired by the idea of coming across an old cassette tape, Allison has described color theory as sounding to her like the music of my childhood distressed. Though the songs here arent quite as immediately infectious as Clean, its combination of deceptively warm surfaces, alluring melodies, and subtly distorted textures reward repeat listens with that sense of discovery. ~ Marcy Donelson