One of the most consistently acclaimed acts in her field, Soccer Mommy’s previous album, a collab with Oneohtrix Point Never, propelled her to new experimental heights in the indie-rock and indie-pop worlds. It took a profound tragedy to swing things back in the other direction – reminding us that Sophia Allison’s pen can be equally as impactful, and in this case, devastating.

Evergreen is a stripped-back and mostly acoustic project that places a spotlight on Allison’s airy and emotive vocals and a variety of lyrical moments that find her grappling with the most deeply upsetting part about experiencing loss and death – the time when you find yourself haunted by every vague memory, searching for signs and, worst of all, feeling the little details fade away as you find yourself struggling to remember them, in their most precise form, more and more. It’s a record about when one experiences a change that is so shell-shocking that their entire demeanour shifts, moving forward in an entirely different way. Nothing is the same, down to the minutiae. Everything is second-guessed.

The track “Changes” ultimately comes to serve as a bit of a thesis statement for the album, as Allison sings “It’s hard enough to know that everything will fade to memory in time.” On the song, she addresses a long-term relationship that she celebrated earlier on in the tracklist, coming to terms with the fact that some day, one way or another, it too will end. But it’s not all doom and gloom – regardless of how beautiful the melodies delivering these gut-punches are. There’s also a full-on nerdy ode to a Stardew Valley character, and the ultimate conclusion that Allison reaches: she could hope to see her dearly departed again someday, but even if that never comes to pass, she knows that certain things – trinkets, teachings, memories – last forever, like the evergreen trees.