Soccer Manager

There's a moment on the third album by Soccer Mommy—aka Sophie Allison— when she sings, on "Still," "I don't know how to feel things small/ It's a tidal wave or nothing at all." And while she's certainly hinted at such extremes in the past (including on 2020's adult-alternative hit "Circle the Drain"), Sometimes, Forever shows just how low she can go. As always, though, it's done with an almost-ethereal beauty; producer Daniel Lopatin has said that the Roches' 1982 song "Losing True" was a vocal influence for the record. "I'd say that song is the birth of dream pop," he told Pitchfork. "And Sophie's record is the death of it!" Indeed, "Darkness Forever"—which feels as dark and moody as Medicine or the Cocteau Twins—opens with the line "head in the oven … simmering low."

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