Soccer Mommy announces new album Color Theory, shares lead single circle the drain

Header image by Brian Ziff.

Ever since emerging as a new force within potent indie-rock with her break-out 2018 record Clean, Nashville musician Soccer Mommy has consistently proved that her songwriting is almost unmatched in its sheer beauty and, at times, devastation. Her music is both grappling and comforting (somehow often simultaneously), capable of ripping you to shreds but also of rebuilding you back together within the same three minutes; haunting vocalism and a distinct, almost indescribable presence of beauty occupying every nook and cranny between the slow-strumming guitar and soft vocals which often dominate her work.

Clean was a big moment for Soccer Mommy. It was compact and tight with clean melodies and carefully-worded lyricism, a masterclass of kinds when it comes to trading off maximalism for effectiveness and brute intensity; Soccer Mommy doesn't need a big Max Martin production to get her point across, she can make just as much of a powerful impact - if not more-so, than the Swedish chart dominator - with just simple unification of guitar chords and rich lyricism which has haunted and consolidated us - in equal parts - across the two years since.

Today, we're stoked to hear that she's announcing a new record in 2020 - Color Theory is its title, and it's out February 28th - and by the sounds of things, it's going to be one just as devastatingly remarkable as her debut. Color Theory is an album pinned in loss and mental health, split into three sections that summarise the album's changing sounds and themes: blue, representing sadness and depression; yellow, symbolizing physical and emotional illness; and grey, representing darkness, emptiness and loss.

To amplify the album's forthcoming rawness, the record largely consists of live takes for its track - raw and unfiltered, her emotion unable to be hidden behind glitzy, over-produced melodies that often stop songs from reaching out with a personal touch. "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," she says. "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."

It also arrived with the album's bold opening taste in circle the drain, which we think accurately sums up the remarkability we're about to witness spread over a full-length, ten-track record. Check out circle the drain below, and pre-order the entire record here.

Follow Soccer Mommy: FACEBOOK