Best of Month: AotY #16: Momma's "Household Name" via Polyvinyl

In 2020 I was in the orbit of someone regularly listening to Two of Me, a record that illustrated two women’s duality and a deeper explanation of what that meant for them. I really gravitated toward this and while it wasn’t necessarily high up for me that year it’s really stuck with me in the years after, both for its concepts and the incredible songwriting at play. This year when I heard “Speeding 72,” which is quite possibly Momma’s best song to date, I knew I was going to be all in for a new record. Unfortunately when I heard it I wasn’t quite as in love as I am with their last.

All that changed when I went to my first ever Momma show in Portland this year. For some reason when I heard ten out of twelve of these songs in a live setting it all fell into place and I don’t just mean the quality of the tracks themselves. Where before I saw no correlation in a band that once weaved a concept so tight before my eyes I now saw a story of chasing the dream of being a musician out on the road, how that can affect those around you and where, for better or for worse, that road goes in the end. There was a real, heartfelt narrative in these tracks that I was just so blind to. The day after the show I listened to the record on my walk to work and it all felt brand new to me. I couldn’t believe what I had been missing.


So, it never got any coverage on the blog, in fact I think this is the first time I’m writing about Momma on here at all, but the way this record turned its own tide of me this year deserves a headlight shined on it.

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