Soccer Mommy Covers a Taylor Swift Fan Favorite, ‘I’m Only Me When I’m With You’

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Given that Taylor Swift is the most popular pop star on the planet — or maybe because of that — there’s been a surprising paucity of covers of her hundreds of tunes by other name-brand artists over the years. Making a dent in that dearth, now, is Soccer Mommy, who has just released her version of a deep cut that is a fan favorite among hardcore Swifties, “I’m Only Me When I’m With You.” “I really wanted to cover this song because it’s one of my favorites from Taylor’s first album,” Soccer Mommy — aka Sophie Allison — said in releasing the tune.

“I listened to that record so much when I was a kid, and I think it had a lot of influence on me then.” Soccer Mommy’s cover takes a much more reflective and balladic approach than Swift’s high-energy original, though it picks up steam as it goes along, She remains faithful to the essentials of the composition, while switching out the fiddle-and-guitar riff that ends the chorus for something more suitable to her softer take. “I’m Only Me When I’m With You” was ranked a high No.

4 in Variety‘s recent ranking of Taylor’s Swift’s 25 best bonus tracks. Said Variety‘s critic of the Swift original, “For almost any other country artist, this would have been the encore in their live show for the next 20 or 30 years; for Swift, it’s more like an asterisk or after-thought, but one that’ll bring a full-on dose of exhilaration when you remember to go back to it.” Although fans had differing opinions of Variety’s list on social media, there was near-universal agreement on the contention that “I’m Only Me…” has been underrated all these years.