Album Review: Soccer Mommy, Karaoke Night

BY PIXIE HOCKER

Soccer Mommy kicks off fall by releasing Karaoke Night, a five song EP made up of only covers. These aren’t the first covers from Soccer Mommy, she’s been releasing covers periodically throughout her entire career. Some of her previous covers include songs from Bruce Springsteen, Jay Som, and The Chicks to name a few. Since Soccer Mommy is no stranger to a cover, I had high expectations for this EP and my expectations were definitely exceeded.

Two of the tracks from Karaoke Night tracks were released as singles, “ I’m Only Me When I’m With You” written by Taylor Swift, was released along with the announcement of Karaoke Night, due from Loma Vista Recordings on September 22nd. But before that, she released her cover of “Soak Up the Sun” by Sheryl Crow, which I got to see Soccer Mommy perform when I saw her open for Maggie Rogers on tour. I instantly fell in love with the cover when I heard it live and was ecstatic to see it on streaming platforms just a few days later.

The other three covers all come from the 90s and Soccer Mommy puts her signature indie-grunge spin on all three. Pavement is one of my favorite bands so I was very excited to see “Here” from Slanted & Enchanted on the list when Soccer Mommy announced the EP. That is followed by her cover of “Dagger” which isn’t the first time I’ve heard Soccer Mommy cover a slowdive song. Whenever I saw her in the fall of 2021, she covered “Allison” and it was phenomenal, much like her cover of “Dagger.” The last cover on the album was definitely my personal favorite which was a cover of the R.E.M. song “Losing My Religion.”

PIXIE HOCKER
Pixie Hocker has loved music for as long as they can remember and has gone to more concerts than she can count. Pixie is the Music Director at her college station 90.5 WASU-FM and hosts a bi-weekly specialty show at Boone Area Community Radio.

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