Musician Sombr has soared to performing for MTV following the release of hit singles and his debut album, I Barely Know Her. Graphic by Brady Ehrhart. Based on “Sombr, Islington Academy, London.jpg” by Drew de F Fawkes, licensed under CC BY 2.0. Original Wikimedia Commons file: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sombr,_Islington_Academy,_London.jpg. License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/. Cropped, recolored and edited into a graphic.
Despite a hidden early career, 20-year-old New York native Shane Michael Boose, known professionally as Sombr (stylized as sombr, all lowercase), achieved social media stardom in less than a year … without a debut album.
Having achieved three Billboard Hot 100 singles in just half of 2025, sombr’s rapidly-increasing following waited in anticipation for his first album.
The fans got what they wanted with the release of album “I Barely Know Her” on Aug. 22, to widespread critical acclaim. Produced alongside the renowned Tony Berg (Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, Boygenius, Lizzy McAlpine), his debut has helped sombr rack up a remarkable 56,740,879 monthly listeners on streaming service Spotify and opened the door to a performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards.
Sombr’s debut album “I Barely Know Her” is a clear indicator as to both his presentation of the award and why he was chosen to perform for nearly 5.5 million viewers; the alternative-pop icon addresses strained relationships and self-realization in a musically upbeat but, pun-intended, lyrically somber 38 minute album.
Although short in length, sombr blends sounds reminiscent of pop artists and groups such as The Weeknd and Tame Impala to drive a narrative of breakups and the seeming impossibility of moving on.
Where sombr does fall into monotony with similar-sounding songs, usually with slower bridges, and repetitive themes, this album demonstrates sombr’s youthful musicality with gritty lyrics (including some in French) and a disconnected, yet intimate songwriting style.
Brady Ehrhart is a senior and the editor-in-chief of the Owl’s Hoot. He first began his journalism career in the 9th grade, working as a writer and eventually becoming an associate editor his junior year. Ehrhart was the recipient of the Norman S. Thompson Journalism Fellowship Endowment, where he attended a weeklong journalism program at Columbia University entering his senior year. Outside of journalism, Ehrhart is a creative writer, specializing in poetry and short fiction, and an alum of the Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop. He is a holder of a hodgepodge music taste and a firm believer in Pilot G-2 pens.
