Has a pop star ever simply snuck up on you out of nowhere? How weepy is that new Sombr tune? Get in. Let’s speak about it. Six months in the past, I, you, perhaps nobody, had ever really reckoned with the creative output of Sombr. And proper now, Sombr has two songs within the High 40 on the Billboard Sizzling 100. Sombr simply turned 20. He’s tall. He’s bought razor-sharp cheekbones. That is somebody who’s a full package deal earlier than you even know that you just’ve obtained the package deal. Each Sombr tune is about hookup tradition indirectly, however principally it’s about how unhappy hookup tradition makes you are feeling. It’s about how darkish it makes you are feeling. It’s about the way it places you in a tunnel of emotional vacancy. Oh come on, canine, this tune is a sense. It’s saying, “We did this factor. It didn’t work out. Now what?” Is it little bit dry to take heed to? It’s. The emotional palette isn’t that huge right here. All of Sombr songs are in this sort of, like, moody grey shade. The way in which that it marches, it’s nearly funereal. The foggy high quality of the music actually jogs my memory of CHILLWAVE but when it was made for arenas, not smoky little rooms. There’s additionally a bunch of ’90s Britpop in right here, that tunefulness actually remembers loads of the most effective British bands of that period. The actual query for me is why is Sombr so in style proper now? Positive, I hear loads of Sombr on TikTok: breakup TikToks, unhappy information TikToks, household trauma TikToks. However to me, that doesn’t account for the broad-base recognition that he’s experiencing. As a critic, a part of what I do is attempt to perceive what takes one thing from a curio to a phenomenon. Sombr, and “Again to Pals,” is clearly heading in the direction of phenomenon territory, however it’s nonetheless imprecise and fuzzy to me. Canine, there’s a Pastime Foyer down right here? Wild.