Get the latest gossip

Sombr ‘Didn’t Want to Just Do Ballads Forever’ — So He Pushed the Tempo and Scored Two Hot 100 Hits

Sombr's "Back to Friends" and "Undressed" are new-school smashes, and he is April's Rock/Alternative Breakthrough of the Month.

Released last December, “Back to Friends” is a swirl of shakers, dramatic piano chords, fuzzed-out vocals full of post-hookup anxieties and harmonies that lob out rhetorical questions on the chorus. Along with March’s “Undressed,” a ghostly warble-along with an equally outsized chorus, Sombr has reinvented his sound over the course of two songs, moving on from the hushed singles released post-“Caroline” and toward slick, slightly swaggering alt-pop. Earlier this week, however, Sombr announced a fall headlining tour across North America that will start on Sept. 30 — and thanks to the surging momentum from “Back to Friends” and “Undressed,” pre-sale tickets apparently sold out within seconds.

Get the Android app