Photo by Anna Pollack

Sophia Allison has been searching for that end destination in the journey toward a requited love since Soccer Mommy’s 2018 breakthrough debut, Clean. On “Driver”, she’s realizing that now that she’s found it, the road doesn’t always need to be paved smooth and straight in order for it to be the path best taken. That doesn’t necessarily apply to her sound here on the latest preview from her forthcoming fourth full-length, Evergreen. After a couple of stylistic detours down roads submerged in pools of dream-pop on 2020’s color theory and through trippy tunnels with 2022’s Sometimes, Forever, “Driver” hears Allison fully assured behind steering wheel positions more familiar in her craft of crunchy guitar rock with just the right amount of air pumped into its tires. “I’m a five-foot-four engine waiting to move / I’m a test of his patience with all that I do / ‘Cause I’m hot and he stays cool, I don’t know why / But he puts up with my moods,” she sings. “And it makes me smile when he says / ‘Where are we going now?’” Sometimes putting your trust in others is roadmap enough. “Driver” doesn’t necessarily promise a bump-free ride, but the way Allison puts it, this is her kind of cruise control.

Directed by: Natalie Simmons

Soccer Mommy’s Evergreen will be released October 25th on Loma Vista Recordings.