Momma’s Allegra Weingarten and Etta Friedman naked all and step into a brand new period of life on their fourth album ‘Welcome to My Blue Sky’ – a uncooked, actual, and fully unapologetic indie rock triumph.
Stream: ‘Welcome to My Blue Sky’ – Momma
I hope individuals fall in love with these songs another way than ‘Family Title.’ I need them to change into anthems for individuals.
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Momma have laid all their playing cards on the desk.
Launched April 4th, 2025 via Polyvinyl Information, their new album Welcome to My Blue Sky handles every thing from infidelity to consuming to nostalgia for a childhood you may’t return to. Regardless of it being a file detailing every approach they screwed up throughout this summer season, neither of the indie darlings are ashamed of the content material, nor was it a query of whether or not to share: “It was the one factor on our thoughts,” stated Allegra Weingarten the night time I sat down with them, only a few days earlier than the file’s launch.
Regardless of having years of expertise at writing witty, biting rock songs about being unapologetically themselves and never feeling like the most effective individuals, the summer season of 2022 marked a lack of innocence. Amidst all of the hazards of tour, they emerged on the opposite aspect of it totally totally different individuals. It put them out, heading dwelling with their tails between their legs.
Etta Friedman, the band’s different founding member, sighed, settling into their seat. “I feel I had essentially the most transitional interval of my life since I left for school. It’s like turning eighteen and realizing you’re an impartial individual now, after which being a totally totally different human being day-after-day till you flip 21. That summer season, we flipped every thing the other way up.”
“Yeah. I’ve written songs about having my coronary heart damaged and being the one which’s unhappy and pining. That’s been a steady theme in my very own writing. Ever since that summer season and state of affairs, I’ve had a far more advanced view of myself. I am in a position to damage individuals, and that’s arduous to comprehend. I don’t assume I’m a foul individual although,” Weingarten added.
“That’s precisely what I imply. There have been so many instances Allegra and I checked out one another like, ‘Will we suck?’ and ‘I don’t know if that is the person who I assumed I used to be, that I’m able to doing issues that damage individuals.’ I assumed I used to be only a sufferer to it, and coming to phrases that I may very well be on the opposite finish was actually necessary.”
There’s no elusivity to Welcome to My Blue Sky.
In truth, Weingarten and Friedman are wanting ahead to you asking them. In any case, it’s so inseparable from the file that they wouldn’t have the ability to keep away from it even when they needed to. “I’m simply excited to listen to what individuals, particularly the individuals immediately concerned in songs and don’t realize it, should say,” Friedman stated with a small, creeping smile. “I feel there’s so much I hope individuals take from it, like that f*ing up is okay, that making errors is completely okay. Generally you must do it to be higher off later.”
Weingarten nodded. “I really feel like that is the primary time those that get pleasure from our music will actually get to know who we’re as individuals, I feel. It’s a really private factor that we’re laying out on the desk, however the extra private you might be in your music, the extra individuals are going to connect with it. I hope individuals fall in love with these songs another way than Family Title. I need them to change into anthems for individuals.”
And anthemic they’re. Welcome to My Blue Sky retains you hooked because it feeds you particulars of what actually occurred that summer season, ones that trip the road between being deeply private and broadly relatable. Opening with “Sincerely,” the file gives up a prologue, teasing the story they’re itching to inform you. Mild voices float over acoustic guitar and smooth piano, asking if they’ll want away every thing that occurred this summer season. When the 2 sing, “No return deal with – I really like you to dying, however I’m exterior the door,” the instrumental fades, giving strategy to what’s to come back.
When the synths swell for “I Need You (Fever),” we start to get an actual image of what the members of Momma are strolling away from. The music paints an image of messy breakups, new hookups, and gossip galore. The repetition of “Choose up and depart her, I need you, fever” is spellbinding in the identical approach as an affair is, deliciously enjoyable regardless of the ethical dilemma on the heart of the music. Momma are hypnotizing the topic into selecting them, and it really works on the listener simply as effectively.
A part of this infectious nature is a change in music construction from their regular alt-rock fashion discovered on their earlier file, Family Title, one which echoes the influences of their ’90s predecessors. That album leaned full-force into the fixed comparisons the band receives to teams like Veruca Salt, Breeders, Smashing Pumpkins, and so forth. Whereas Momma carry out fantastically inside that subgenre, anybody that thinks they sound identical to a grunge band is just not listening to sufficient grunge. There’s at all times been a clear factor to their music, one dripping in nostalgia and enjoyable, so it makes full sense that they shifted on this route.
“Keep All Summer season” is a unbelievable instance of this. Weingarten and Friedman bounce backwards and forwards on this observe with a flirtatious optimism. “I’d stall and keep all summer season, babe, in order for you me to.” Absent is the heavy lead guitar and thumping drum beat in favor of regular chords, framing one thing as conflicting as tough as leaving your associate for another person as the one proper alternative.
“I feel one lesson we discovered making the final file is that much less is extra,” admitted Weingarten. “It’s not that I don’t love taking part in me some guitar and writing a lead half, however there have been so many cases the place it was time so as to add a lead and I attempted one million various things. The factor that ended up sounding the most effective was just a bit doom doom doom riff. It’s simply what match, and you may’t pressure advanced guitar elements or songwriting if it’s not what the music warrants.”
“Yeah,” Friedman agreed. “It’s tremendous like, ‘Does this really feel good proper now? Sure? Okay, let’s preserve going.”
“We didn’t really feel like we needed to show that we’re badass guitar gamers, as a result of who cares? We are badass guitar gamers.”
We didn’t really feel like we needed to show that we’re badass guitar gamers, as a result of who cares? We’re badass guitar gamers.
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Regardless of this shift, Welcome to My Blue Sky settles even deeper into the sound followers have fallen for on Family Title.
“We bought to simply accept that we are able to do no matter we would like. It doesn’t all should sound the identical, and you actually see that right here. No two songs have the identical vibes. It was tremendous scary firstly, as a result of we have been fairly conscious of the truth that we would disappoint the key Family Title followers. However you must be assured in your resolution making, and that when you prefer it, others will prefer it. We determined to be actually egocentric when it got here to writing, as a result of we’re those who should play these songs for years and years and years to come back,” Weingarten stated, voice dripping with finality.
This isn’t to say there’s not one thing nonetheless for followers of Family Title, regardless of Momma’s aforementioned anxieties about this. Those that come for heavy guitar and angst for miles have absolutely the ripper that’s “Final Kiss.” “We had the chords for some time,” Weingarten stated, “however we might not work out the place we have been taking that music. All we knew is that we preferred it, and we actually needed to maintain it round, nevertheless it was tremendous difficult.”
That being stated, this file stands as their strongest by a mile as a result of this very selfishness. The band discovered themselves in a position to actually change up their sound. In collaboration with their producer and bandmate Aron Kobayashi-Ritch, they might experiment with extra digital components, notably on “Bottle Blonde,” a Frou-Frou-esque love letter to their previous selves.
“We wrote [‘Bottle Blonde’] in a resort room simply on acoustic, and we had it as a voice memo,” defined Friedman. “It was the final one for the file, and we needed to do one thing totally different as a result of it sounded so fairly simply acoustic, and, like, we already had so many songs that have been guitar-based! After we went to go demo it with Aron, we had three tracks with some fairly random references, and Aron had this drum loop. We have been immediately like, ‘Oh, my God. You perceive the project. It’s precisely what we needed.’ I simply couldn’t have predicted it sounding that approach.”
What additionally advantages from the selfishness is the lyrics. “I’m extra happy with each music on this file lyrically than something on Family Title, to be utterly sincere. I imply, not talking for Etta’s songs,” Weingarten laughed, “however when it comes to my very own, these lyrics are a lot extra mature and sincere.”
Whereas earlier albums had their justifiable share of writing in character, that factor is sort of totally absent right here. The one music in another person’s voice is “Rodeo,” which is sung from the angle of their scorned ex-lovers. Regardless of it not being their very own ideas, the act of self-deprecation via the eyes of others in some way makes it one of the crucial sincere songs on the album.
“‘Rodeo’ actually fell into place,” she stated. “The rationale why it’s my favourite music on the file is as a result of I don’t even keep in mind writing it because it was so quick. It virtually looks like we didn’t write it in any respect. I’ve loopy imposter syndrome after I hearken to it. There’s no not corny strategy to say this, however that music wrote itself.”
The one different music on right here that rivals it in authenticity is “The way to Breathe,” their first music explicitly a few lesbian relationship. It’s tender and serene regardless of the electrical guitar, a steadiness that wasn’t at all times there: “There was this bridge that was tremendous rock and roll, approach heavier. It’s so significantly better how it’s now.” Friedman’s voice bobs and floats throughout the string part, so sincere that they learn as nervous as they sing, “There’s a silhouette throughout my world together with her and I because the define.”
As Momma trip the again of this file, you may watch them obtain their delayed gratification in actual time. Three years after releasing a file about desirous to be rockstars, the band finds themselves taking part in on Jimmy Kimmel’s late night time present, doing a plethora of press, and setting off on their subsequent headlining tour.
“There have been tears shed, whiskey pictures taken. It was superior, actually enjoyable stuff,” stated Weingarten.
“It may be arduous to step again and perceive that we’re like, truly doing this,” confessed Friedman. “Moments like Kimmel the place we are able to all step again and hug and be like, ‘Holy shit. I can’t imagine we’ve completed this…’ are essentially the most lovely a part of working in a collaborative challenge.”
In Welcome to My Blue Sky, Momma have been in a position to take the craziest, most private time of their life and flip it right into a file that’s uncooked, actual, and fully unapologetic.
It manages to be their most expansive work and remodel their discography, shrugging off the limitless nineties-era comparisons and making a reflective album that lets their followers in for the very first time.
As they step away from who they was, each Friedman and Weingarten enter into a brand new period of their lives and their music, one which’s marked by maturation and the willingness to lose somewhat to achieve so much.
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“Welcome to My Blue Sky” – Momma
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