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This month, Gay City News reviews the solo debut from Katie Gavin, singer of the queer pop band MUNA, and bi indie rock artist Soccer Mommy’s fourth studio album.
Soccer Mommy | “Evergreen” | Loma Vista | October 25th
It takes repeat spins to hear what’s distinctive about “Evergreen.” When Soccer Mommy (aka Nashville-based artist Sophie Allison) hit the music scene with home-recorded demos on Bandcamp in 2015, she resembled many other indie singer/songwriters who mix rock, folk and pop. “Evergreen” returns to those days with the benefit of expertise and a far less casual approach. The production picks up a new influence: baroque pop, with a fondness for flutes. The album’s lyrics promise an intimacy akin to the home movie look (complete with visible frame edges) of her music video “M.”
Paying attention to the lyrics is essential for “Evergreen” to make much impact. Although Soccer Mommy hasn’t gone public with the details, the album exists in the shadow of the loss of someone close to her. “Lost” confronts grief directly: “I’ve got a way of keeping her with me where I go…lost in a way that don’t make sense.” The mental remnants of the woman who’s no longer a part of her life are no comfort.
“Dreaming of Falling” inhabits a nightmare where “half of my life’s behind me/and the other’s changed somehow.” “Abigail” lightens the mood. It’s a love song to a woman: she just happens to exist inside the video game “Stardew Valley.” Without that background, its desire feels heartfelt: “Abigail, I know you more than anybody has before/I will be waiting at your door for you to let me in.” “Abigail” contains the album’s loveliest orchestration, with a combination of strings, chiming guitar and a rising vocal melody bringing out the song’s yearning.
Her songs look back to the poppier side of ‘90s indie: alt-rock radio hits like Belly’s “Feed the Tree” or Liz Phair’s “Supernova.” (Early on, she offered commentary on the male canon of rock music, reversing the Stooges’ “I Wanna Be Your Dog” to say “I don’t wanna be your f**king dog” and covering Bruce Springsteen’s predatory “I’m on Fire.”) The production of her previous album, “Sometimes, Forever,” took big chances, sometimes turning down Soccer Mommy’s vocals, putting her guitar through heavy distortion and working in sharp electronic filigrees. “Evergreen” retreats back into more predictable textures and structures, with clean vocals and guitar high in the mix. Acoustic instruments fill in the spaces, introducing a degree of dream pop. While the album’s biggest weakness is that its sound isn’t all that distinctive, “Evergreen” offers some of the most haunting melodies Soccer Mommy has ever written, with “Lost,” “Some Sunny Day” and “M” standing out.
Katie Gavin | “What a Relief” | Saddest Factory | October 25th
Were “What a Relief” a ‘90s release, it would have immediately scored Katie Gavin a slot on the all-woman, singer/songwriter-oriented Lilith Fair tour. It stands at the well-traveled intersection where indie and country meet.Working outside the context of MUNA for a solo album forced Gavin to find a new sound. While her band’s last album included touches of pop country, “What a Relief” goes much further, with acoustic guitar, pedal steel, and fiddle as its standby instruments.
The change in settings allows one to hear the continuity between MUNA and “What a Relief,” which lands hardest on its first two singles, “Aftertaste” and “Casual Drug Use.” Gavin’s ear for vocal and guitar melodies remains similar. The tune of “Aftertaste” hits exactly like a MUNA song, with the absence of synthesizers being the only real difference. (Gavin wrote it the same day in 2022 as MUNA’s “Silk Chiffon.”) The chorus takes a leap into the yearning desire of a new relationship, with Gavin singing “you’re the only reason I came here/you’re the only reason it’s so clear to me now.”
Gavin contemplates a life of small, measured moments, where her cat can be the subject of a love song. “The Baton” envisions motherhood as a process of passing life between generations of women. “Casual Drug Use” reaches an epiphany that drugs aren’t serving her in the long run but function as her best coping mechanism in the short run: “it’s a little unnerving how fast I’ll fall back in/to fixing my issues with casual drug use.” She also wonders about her place in her family’s history — on “Inconsolable,” she describes herself as coming from a household that can’t express emotion — and how she might continue it.
In the context of the entire album, the singles are a deceptive introduction. Elsewhere, it leans towards an introspective, hushed restraint. Gavin adopts a whispery voice, carefully keeping down the volume of her guitar. Field recordings of birds flesh out “Sparrow.” “The Baton” enhances bluegrass with a buzzing electronic drone. Departing from the country influences, the tense piano of “Sanitized” glance towards Fiona Apple: In a blindfold test, Gavin’s vocals could pass for hers. The album’s subtle mix of acoustic instruments with small electronic touches lands in a place that extends her work with MUNA naturally. In its final seconds, she’s simply grateful “‘cause I was given today.”
