When Shane Michael Boose began releasing melancholic bedroom pop under the name sombr, he was a voice major at LaGuardia High School — the New York performing arts school that produced Nicki Minaj, Ansel Elgort, and Timothée Chalamet. Experimenting first with GarageBand and later with Logic Pro, Boose crafted a dreamy sound defined by lush harmonies and heavy-hearted yearning. Using little more than default drum kits and amp emulations, he found himself in the orbit of indie-adjacent acts like Cigarettes After Sex — artists without major hits or critical recognition, yet somehow commanding billions of streams.
After signing to Warner Records and bringing a batch of “50 to 70% finished” demos to producer Tony Berg (best known for his work with Phoebe Bridgers), sombr finally had the resources to build his wall of sound. With that, his confidence — and commercial appeal — began to swell.
His debut full-length, I Barely Know Her, falls squarely within the lineage of his viral forebears. Call it yearncore: big emotions, bigger choruses, and production so drenched in reverb it blurs the line between sincerity and detachment. It’s the kind of electronic haze that drifts between Foster the People and Mazzy Star. On one end are refined dream-pop acts like crushed and Night Tapes; on the other, pop-friendly peers like Wallows and Del Water Gap, whose 2020 breakout “Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat” feels like a spiritual predecessor.
At times, it’s hard to tell whether sombr is being referential, derivative, or just clever. “Undressed” nearly lifts The Neighbourhood’s “Sweater Weather,” while “Canal Street” mirrors Phoebe Bridgers’ “Scott Street” in both tempo and structure. But for a young artist still finding his footing, that kind of imitation is forgivable. What I Barely Know Her reveals most clearly is sombr’s fascination with 2010s indie and his uneasy relationship with romance. Still, his knack for hooks is undeniable, and his voice — even under layers of effects — remains a compelling instrument. You could easily imagine him evolving into a Tobias Jesso Jr.-type songwriter for others.
The album’s polish owes a lot to its collaborators. With Wendy Melvoin (of Prince’s Revolution) adding guitar and Shawn Everett on mixing, I Barely Know Her gleams and grooves in all the right places. Unlike peers who bury their vocals in haze, sombr puts his front and center — almost startlingly so on opener “Crushing,” a saturated, Julian Casablancas-style blast. Polyphonic choruses on “We Never Dated” and “Back to Friends” lend faint credence to the Brian Wilson comparisons floating around early press.
Lyrically, though, sombr’s perspective on women can feel off-balance — equal parts awe and apprehension. A viral lyric like, “I don’t want the children of another man to have the eyes of the girl I won’t forget,” caught attention more for its drama than its depth. Elsewhere, “Come Closer” casts him as a pawn in a femme fatale’s game, while “Dime” reaches for wordplay (“You’re a ten and I’m a man that needs a dime”) that lands closer to dad joke than poetry. He’s more appealing when he leans into sweetness — “I miss the days when we were crushing on each other / Now you’re just crushing my soul, my lover” — but that charm only stretches so far. By the time he borrows Brokeback Mountain’s most famous line for “I Wish I Knew How to Quit You,” the irony has worn thin.
When sombr lets go of the self-conscious yearning, though, the results sparkle. “12 to 12” channels the grandiosity of Brandon Flowers’ The Desired Effect, reviving nu-disco with swagger and a wink. The album closes on “Under the Mat,” a widescreen breakup epic that channels Springsteen’s cinematic heartache. There are still lyrical clunkers (“She and I didn’t see eye to eye on politics and such”), but when sombr and his lover move into a cramped apartment and try to make it work, it finally feels real.
Rather than hammering home heartbreak, he’s examining it — how love collapses under the weight of difference. She was a suburban girl. He was a city boy.
And no, sombr really can’t make it any more obvious.
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