Soccer Mommy Channels Sweet, Nineties-Steeped Sadness on ‘Color Theory’

Towards the beginning of Soccer Mommy’s new album, Color Theory, she gives a startling confession: “I am the princess of screwing up.” The singer-songwriter, real name Sophie Allison, is just two years into her twenties, but she sounds as if she’s been navigating early adulthood for decades, wading through the waters of depression and sadness while fighting a few demons along the way. “My world is sinking,” she sings on “Royal Screw Up,” “and I am the captain of it all.”

Some of the album’s tracks share the same titles as songs from the Nineties and early aughts (“Night Swimming,” “Crawling in My Skin”) and it’s hardly unintentional: Allison, who was born in 1997, aimed to make Color Theory sound like her childhood — a time when teens had translucent iMacs and Tamagotchis instead of TikTok. The nostalgia can be felt all over the record, from the glitchy production to its cover, which mocks a cassette cartridge in neon yellow font (the “Batteries Not Included” note only makes it more charming).