Soccer Mommy - color theory
Critic Score
Based on 30 reviews
2020 Ratings: #47 / 871
Year End Rank: #26
User Score
2020 Rank: #201
Liked by 249 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Albumism

She's essentially taken what worked well the first time and managed to only enhance the things that needed to be, while keeping everything else perfect.

100
Upset
Soccer Mommy has grown tremendously as an artist in the two years since her last album, and it's obvious that she hasn't even yet reached the pinnacle of her musical prowess.
100
Dork

Though the emotions expressed might be broad, Allison's unvarnished writing allows for moments of penetrating nuance.

100
The Skinny

With effortless cool, razor-sharp riffs and wise takes on adolescence, Soccer Mommy surpasses expectations on color theory.

90
Paste

color theory is an astounding feat of lyricism as clever as it is devastating.

90
No Ripcord

It’s a heavy, at times uncomfortable listen, but one that feels intensely relatable. It finds strength in the somber and the morose by paining it in bright colors and wonderful riff work.

90
Northern Transmissions

It’s a lovely collection of songs that should only enhance Allison’s standing as one of the premier talents of her generation, female or otherwise.

90
DIY

She encapsulates the spiralling mundanity of feeling blue without sugar coating it with unnecessary poetry.

90
Exclaim!

A darker and more complex record, it displays a newfound maturity in Allison's arrangements and a decidedly higher set of stakes.

85
Under the Radar

Soccer Mommy has made bitter truths sound sweet without losing the harsh edges that give them poignant meaning. On color theory, Allison continues to push forward as one of the brightest talents in her genre.

83
Consequence of Sound

Where accumulation can often feel like a build to a grand, orchestrated finale, Allison uses it instead to create the feeling over the course of this album of something coming apart and being laid bare.

80
The Sydney Morning Herald

Color Theory finds her digging deeper, both lyrically and sonically.

80
The Independent

She has pulled off the difficult trick of developing a new signature sound, without losing the personal perspective that separated her from the pack in the first place.

80
Crack Magazine

Here, she ruminates on the small pockets of beauty against a darkened exterior, presenting both the rainbow and the grey sky. Soccer Mommy is one of Gen Z’s most gifted storytellers.

80
Mojo
Misery and beauty on Nashvillian's second studio album.
80
Uncut

A leap forward on Nashville native's second, with band.

80
The Guardian

Color Theory is a glorious record: the lyrics, delivered in a plain uninflected voice by Allison – melodic, but not in the least showy – are paired with tunes and arrangements that leap out.

80
Rolling Stone

Sophie Allison follows her 2018 breakthrough with a sucker punch of emotion.

80
Record Collector

Color Theory is a lyrically sophisticated collection that doesn’t shy from some heavy subject matter.

80
NME

As explorations of pain go, ‘Color Theory’ is as beautiful as it is brave.

80
AllMusic

Though the songs here aren't 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.

79
Beats Per Minute

There’s no denying that it’s impressively brave to have put out an album this explicitly personal at a relatively young age.

78
Pitchfork

The second album from singer-songwriter Sophie Allison is piercing and unpredictable. In contrast to its bigger and brighter sound, the mood is grimmer, the emotional truths darker.

75
The Line of Best Fit

Color Theory is an album both of pure catharsis, and proof of musical prowess.

75
Spectrum Culture

As Allison processes a lifetime’s worth of trouble, she mixes moods of indie-rock for a record that goes through the worst of it and keeps on playing.

70
Slant Magazine

Allison’s progression as a songwriter is more acutely evident in the album’s darker, weightier subject matter.

60
Sputnikmusic

There’s nothing particularly troubling or outright bad, again, it’s a pleasant listen, but subtracting the cute, self-aware lyrics and smart lo-fi songwriting makes Color Theory one note, one hue of sunny orange.

60
Q Magazine
Early 1990s-style introspection makes for an uneasy listen.
60
PopMatters

Although Allison had a particular vision for the project, it's tempting to wonder how much tighter the final product would've felt had it been put through a more rigorous edit.

Scrunchface
100

Holy shit this girl has talent. She's one of my favorite artists in the world, and she didn't slow down on Color Theory at all. She basically took Clean and added some juice to it. It's less somber and it has a certain retro energy that I can't get enough of. Gray Light might be my favorite song Sophie has ever made, and I'd be very surprised if this isn't album of the year for me. I know it's early, but it would take something big to one up this

Doublez
74

Sophie Allison (aka Soccer Mommy) didn't just try to reproduce what she did so well on Clean, she perfected her art to make Color Theory even more impressive, making this new album her best to date!

There's something uplifting about listening to Soccer Mommy, it's that feeling and that sweet smell of nostalgia around her indie rock that permeates the 90's and reminds me of so many things. Yet this feeling could be something vicious when you think about it, since it can soften your real ... read more

Missing_Lyriks
65

Listening To Artists Who Release Albums In September Day 5/5

Dang, the album is called ‘color theory’, but only two songs have names with colors in them… and one isn’t even in the rainbow! Rainbow hater?

soccer mommy is your typical Indie Rock singer with a bit of influence from artists such as Lorde and Lana Del Rey that are visible in her formatting. The project itself, while gorgeous, can be a bit boring, never really developing into something greater than how it ... read more

Dunklenut
71

Nice singer-songwriter type pop with a lo-fi aesthetic. For someone really into Bedroom Pop, I think 'color theory' would be really great. As someone sort of indifferent to a lot of Bedroom Pop, I'm also somewhat indifferent to Soccer Mommy

80

this is a very nice calm relaxing album with some very nice vocals, i really enjoy this album and as much as i was barely paying attention to it on my listen i still found it to be very nice and definetely enjoyed this.

xmitae
73

I decided to re-listen to this album due to feeling I wasn't in the right setting when I listened to it the first time. I listened to the song "bloodstream" so much in 2020 and wanted to check out the album finally and it was cool. On my first listen, I felt the other songs after "circle the drain" wasn't fun and slightly boring but on my 2nd listen, I enjoyed them a lot more -- especially tracks like "Royal Screw-Up". The last half of the album still felt average ... read more

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Track List

1bloodstream
5:37
82
2circle the drain
4:40
89
3royal screw up
4:07
82
4night swimming
4:16
82
5crawling in my skin
4:17
80
6yellow is the color of her eyes
7:15
86
7up the walls
2:44
82
8lucy
4:56
78
9stain
3:00
76
10gray light
3:16
80
Total Length: 44 minutes
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Added on: January 14, 2020