Clean showcases what it is to be stuck in a quicksand of self-loathing, and have it stop you from seeing your own accomplishments and more importantly, being proud of them. If Allison isn’t already chuffed with this debut, she should be.
Still trading in piercing vulnerability, Clean is Allison’s excellent studio debut: a compact album of clear melodies, plainspoken lyrics, and the impossibly tangled logic of infatuation.
With Clean, she may have again left her bedroom for the studio, but her introspective and comfortably confessional lyrics maintain their intimacy and diary-scrawl relatability.
Clean explores feelings of infatuation, insecurity, and acceptance as Allison wearily enters adulthood ... Allison is promptly hitting her stride and clearly gaining confidence and showing it with strands of snarkiness and angst mixed within her delicate, vulnerable songs.
The combination of melancholy interspersed with anger dominates Soccer Mommy’s debut as she reels through the limbo of young adulthood: it’s something that would make both Alanis Morissette and Taylor Swift proud.
With Clean, Allison has delivered one of early 2018’s easiest albums to simply enjoy. If you’ve been a human being for all of your life, you will recognise very well the experiences related throughout its fleeting 35 minutes.
Allison is a beguiling romantic who doesn’t hold any punches but also considers others’ changing behavior. Always true to her word, she carries onward, and a little more empowered, until it’s time to take on the next hurdle.
While Soccer Mommy showed a range of ideas on Collection, she tightens things down to a concentrated melancholy this time around. The band’s emotional control makes every song instantly affecting, but they end up meditating on the same ideas again and again.
Clean's plentiful highlights suggest that Allison might one day deliver a true indie classic.
Allison's verge-of-tears delivery is another sign that Clean's grown-up vibe can't hide the vulnerable teen within.
Within its polished melancholy, Clean is a raw portrait of sadness.
It's very good background music, but I don't find it something that I'd return to a lot. I may not like it, but that doesn't mean it's inherently bad.
my first thought about this was: "haven't i heard all of this before?". indie guitar album fronted by a female. it's been done before and done well. yet, there is something tempting about this Soccer Mommy record and something that sets it apart from other names
8/10
exceptional
Fav tracks: Still Clean, Cool, Your Dog, Flaw, Blossom, Last Girl, Skin, Scorpio Rising, Wildflowers
possibly THE essential female indie rock record.
some people may overlook the melodies on here but each one is memorable and the record is tied together very nicely with a reprise of the first song's melody in the last song.
vastly underrated album, I highly recommend it.
why are all the songs rated high 80s-90s but the album in the 70s? I'll never know
1 | Still Clean 4:01 | 84 |
2 | Cool 3:16 | 85 |
3 | Your Dog 3:14 | 91 |
4 | Flaw 3:41 | 84 |
5 | Blossom (Wasting All My Time) 3:12 | 81 |
6 | Last Girl 3:35 | 85 |
7 | Skin 4:01 | 85 |
8 | Scorpio Rising 4:42 | 88 |
9 | Interlude 1:38 | 79 |
10 | Wildflowers 3:18 | 84 |
#1 | / | The New York Times: Jon Caramanica |
#3 | / | The Ringer |
#4 | / | Paste |
#7 | / | Digital Trends |
#7 | / | Stereogum |
#8 | / | The New York Times: Jon Pareles |
#8 | / | The Wild Honey Pie |
#10 | / | ABC News |
#10 | / | Albumism |
#12 | / | Esquire (US) |