Teaching Me How To Bleed

Soccer Mommy “With U”

They released four advance singles from the new Soccer Mommy record and somehow none of them was “With U,” a lovesick power ballad that’s by far the most obviously commercial song on the album. Sophie Allison manages a tricky balance here – the song goes as big and sentimental as Taylor Swift in Red mode, but her vocal delivery signals the shyness and insecurity that comes through in most of her songs. In lesser hands that might undermine the sweep of the song, but Allison commits enough that it sounds like someone who’s pushing through their reflexive defensive moves to sing something that feels enormous to them. I like her lyrical angle here too – she’s singing about feeling overwhelmed by the intensity of her feelings in the context of a long term relationship, expressing feelings a lot of people could easily file under “codependent.” But that’s so judgmental, really, and what she’s singing isn’t toxic or anything like that. It’s just being honest that investing that much in anyone is scary, and she doesn’t feel like she wants another option.

Buy it from Bandcamp.