Soccer Mommy, Alexalone

Playing Bernie Sanders rallies and preparing for tour, life was inexplicably different when Sophie Allison released her second Soccer Mommy LP in February 2020. Twenty months later, the singer-songwriter finally performs songs from color theory, a gentle but brazen traverse through personal crisis. Pairing unflinching ugliness with soft sonics, she sings lovingly of her terminally ill mother in the lush “yellow is the color of her eyes,” and tears herself apart in the stark “royal screw up.” While decidedly louder, Austin openers Alexalone harness a similar softness at their center, a plus for knowing fans and unassuming reverb lovers alike. – Carys Anderson