Sombr has easily become my favorite artist, topping my Spotify monthly streaming minutes and taking a place in my heart over the past couple of years. His new album, “I Barely Know Her,” released in August, is no exception.
I previously wrote about seeing sombr live at the Filmore in Philadelphia in the summer of 2024, and not to exaggerate, but that experience completely changed my life. I started listening to sombr when he had 3,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, and he blew up overnight; now with over 56,000,000 listeners. Sombr’s music found me at the exact right time, through my TikTok For You page. I was dealing with the breakup of my over three-year-long relationship, and his music resonated deeply with the emotions I was feeling at the time.
I spent the entire concert sobbing in the small crowd and got to meet sombr afterwards and tell him how much his music meant to me. With his debut album, “I Barely Know Her,” I feel like he hit even deeper parts of my psyche that I didn’t know existed.
Especially with experiences and relationships I’ve had since that first breakup, this album hits every aspect of dating, yearning, missing, and all the other emotions you feel during and at the end of relationships.
I love that listeners can hear sombr’s own healing journey through the progression of his music, from “caroline,” “weak,” and “sihloette,” published in 2022 and 2023, to this new album; the very beat and rhythm of his music is becoming more upbeat.
Yet, he still maintains the themes of longing and heartbreak.
