Sombr – Homewrecker

Controvrsy…

[Video]
[5.75]Al Varela: I’m more confident than ever that Sombr is here to stay. What could easily come off as pathetic flailing over a girl who refuses to make him more than a side piece is instead deeply compelling melodrama that lets its emotions soar in all their messy, regrettable glory. The tight groove set against the thick layering that still makes that still makes room for that huge hook makes such a good case for this song’s “go for broke” spirit. It’s pretty obvious this is a desperate Hail Mary that probably won’t work because the attraction is so one-sided. But dammit, he’s gonna go for broke anyway, because it’s that serious for him. And maybe if he lets that part of him free, warts and all, she can see him as more than a distraction. The kind of dramatic climax you’d see in a high school romcom where the leads are embarrassing to watch, but you want to see them make it anyway.
[9]

Taylor Alatorre: A shimmering, feet-to-the-floor power pop groove that derives said power from the imagined outcome that its singer professes not to want. I’m beginning to think that this guy isn’t all that “somber” about the prospect of being a homewrecker after all…
[8]

Katherine St. Asaph: The heel to the face that is “Call Your Girlfriend”; “I don’t wanna be how you formulate opinions on astrology” is Sombr writing Sombr fanfiction.
[5]

Tim de Reuse: Much has been written already on Sombr’s youth, and I don’t want to say you can’t write about this kind of stuff until you’ve gotten a few more years in you. But I can’t avoid the feeling that I just don’t fucking buy it, you know? It’s not just his blemish-less voice, it’s his arrangements and his production and those cherubic little ooohs in the chorus. It’s a gorgeous sonic treatment by someone who knows what he’s doing technically, but it’s lavish in the same direction that contemporary Christian stadium-rock is; i.e. there’s so much bluster that it removes any possibility for emotional subtlety. This is not what “being the guy that someone’s cheating on their lover with” feels like. I cannot accept a version of that story that involves no doubt or worry or any conflict beyond the aspiration to “be better.” And, while we’re at it — the audacity to open a song with “you hit like a drunk cigarette” when you’re still too young to legally drink!
[4]

Andrew Karpan: Annoying in a general way because the value preposition of Sombr is exactly his banal conventionality, which constantly poses the question: why bother smoking the cigarette at all? And why so loudly? Yet, it’s also true, for these reasons, that he’s among the exalted, rock acts that get better the cornier they get, see: The Killers, Peter Gabriel, invariable members of the larger Paul McCartney contingent et. al. Which is to say that this is easily the best thing Mr. Sombr has ever done, equally offensive and offense-less. No homes are being wrecked and, in fact, everyone is going back home by the time the night ends, that’s what those beautiful nothing chords mean and, if Bushwick existed in the past instead of the endlessly banal future, I would be singing this song at 3am in the backroom of the Cobra Club interchangeable with other such faceless, recognizable varieties of INXS power-hour slop.
[8]

Nortey Dowuona: I never want to be too difficult, but a song which has nothing whatsoever about the race of the other partner he is romancing but has an interracial romance at the core of the music video just reminds me of this. This mindset was dumb then and it’s dumber now. Plus, bro is leaning heavily on post-1980’s Prince — which I’m not even against — but Prince doing that back then was more wild because he was also black. It loses all its charge if this is a white dude. Again, I apologize for being so difficult about this cut I’m just so tired of the swirl agenda no matter who does it.
[0]

Alfred Soto: This reeks of industry respectability — Tony Berg as producer? The massed harmonies and the polite smut of its lyrics cross-pollinate Justin Timberlake and Mumfordized pop, plus he sports cheekbone that could cut rocks of cocaine. Anonymity this pronounced earning radio play scares me.
[5]

Claire Davidson: Sombr continues to pleasantly surprise me. “Homewrecker” is not new territory for him, given the more groove-forward approach of his previous single “12 to 12,” but the coy brightness of its lead guitar lends the track a degree of real sincerity that the brooding of his other material tends to obscure. I’m not sure all the details of his alt-rock wall-of-sound approach are intuitively placed here: the track’s backing piano is well-balanced amidst the song’s aforementioned groove, as well as the multitracked backing vocals that arrive on the chorus, but the deeper resonance of its lower chords does seem a bit at odds with the song’s looser tone. Sombr himself could use a touch of refinement, too — while his angsty delivery conveys the song’s central yearning fairly well, his immaturity as a performer still appears in key moments, such as his nasal intonation of the line, “I just know I can be bett-er, be bett-er” on the hook. That a song about wanting to break up someone’s relationship can still sound this benevolent is no mean feat, though, a credit to Sombr’s canniness in emphasizing the moments of intimacy he steals with his paramour, snatches of time that feel indicative of something greater than mere friendship. I’m still not completely sold on “Homewrecker,” but I’ll give the kid the edge here.
[7]