By the time most artists hit 20, they’re still trying to find their sound. For sombr, the stage name of New York–born Shane Boose, that search has already turned into a global phenomenon. With his debut album I Barely Know Her, the Lower East Side native has made good on the buzz that’s followed him since his 2022 viral hit “Caroline.”

Written entirely by sombr and co-produced with Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers, boygenius), I Barely Know Her is a coming-of-age album that plays like a confessional from the inside of a restless Gen Z heart. Across ten tracks, anchored by chart-topping singles “back to friends,” “undressed,” and “12 to 12,” the album balances lo-fi intimacy with sweeping, cinematic production. It’s emotional without being self-serious, polished but unpretentious, and smart enough to make heartbreak sound like liberation.

Sombr’s rise has been something special. He’s already amassed more than two billion streams, topped alternative radio faster than any debut artist in the last decade, and dethroned Hozier on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart. His voice, equal parts tender ache and quiet swagger, has made him a mainstay across Spotify playlists and late-night TV. He also dominated the MTV VMAs, winning Best New Artist and Alternative Video awards.

It’s a long way from the makeshift bedroom studio where he recorded his first demos as a student at LaGuardia High School, the performing arts institution immortalized in Fame. While other teens were studying for driver’s tests, Boose was learning classical composition and producing love songs that captured pandemic-era isolation and connection in equal measure. “Learning how to sing classically taught me how to get any sound I want,” he explains. “My voice is a more powerful tool than anything else.” Drawing from the emotional candor of Phoebe Bridgers and the indie-pop sensibility of Bon Iver, sombr has built something that feels distinctly his own with songs that transform personal heartbreak into everyone’s catharsis.