Audrey Hobert; Weirdly Honest, Weirdly Relatable

Joey Gilbertson
Sep 19
5 min read

Hello everyonee! I hope the fourth week of classes went well for you all! I wanted to take a step back and talk about a new artist that's quickly rising in the pop scene. Audrey Hobert is the kind of artist that you don't see very often- she's changing up the game and challenging mainstream pop. Maybe not in the way you'd think, though.

>> Introduction <<

Audrey Hobert is a 26 year old singer-songwriter who just entered the scene very recently. She released her debut album "Who's the Clown?" on August 15th 2025, and since then it's received a lot of praise by reviewers. Her debut album currently sports an 82 on Metacritic, with most reviewers noting her unique-yet-effective songwriting. While this may have been Audrey's first solo project, this actually wasn't the first album she's had a hand in making. Before working on her debut, Audrey was best known for her work with Gracie Abrams on her 2024 album "The Secret of Us" and it's deluxe edition. She's actually a very close friend of Gracie's, having met all the way back in 5th grade. These two artists both had a hand in writing one of the biggest hits from 2024-2025, "That's So True". Despite the fact that Audrey has only just started her music career within the last year, she's already had an unprecedented amount of success for someone who had no prior experience in this field. Maybe it makes sense that she's not quite like the rest of her peers..

>> Sue me <<

Despite just writing "That's So True", Audrey was somehow able to squeeze out another viral song in just a short amount of time. "Sue me" was the lead single for her debut album in addition to being first song she ever released. There's a lot of reasons as to why so many were interested in this song. It's quirky, weird, memorable, and addicting. The synth perpetually going up and down in the background, that repetitive kick, and Audrey's abnormally-normal tone makes for a really unique listen. The tone of the song is actually pretty flat- not getting much more intense or any less intense either. But it does just enough to keep your attention. Audrey's lyrics definitely play a huge role in that. The metaphors and writing devices she uses are very unexpected and sometimes even unorthodox. For example, "Your face, my place. It's business, babe. And my roommate is here, so let's ménage-à-trois it." It's lyrics like these that make you want to open your music app and look at the lyrics because it sounds so absurd that you want to make sure you heard her correctly. "Sue me" was a prime indicator of her talent, her music becomes memorable the moment you press play.

>> Honesty is the best policy? <<

Another aspect of Audrey's music that I really like is her complete honesty. Sometimes she's so candid that you start to question whether her whole spiel is satire or not. She talks a lot about being an unproductive loser sitting on the couch with a joint all night, but also that she's an extroverted socialite who can make a party out of wherever she goes. This constant back and forth between her different personas actually makes her music feel that much more relatable. After all, we are only able to see as much of an artists life as they let us. We don't usually relate to an artist as a person, rather we relate to their situation and lyrics. Audrey has done something completely different in that regard- she's relatable in a way that makes you envision the song from both her perspective and your own perspective. In most songs, she sings like she's telling a story from start to finish. When listening to a song like "Wet Hair" or "Bowling alley", it feels like you unexpectedly ran into a friend you hadn't seen in a while who is eagerly updating you on the messes they've gotten themselves into. Her honesty and relatability also make it easy to apply the lyrics to your own life, but that's not something necessarily unique to Audrey (but still worth commending!). This unique perspective on songwriting makes for some really interesting lyrics that keep you coming back.

>> Ridiculous with purpose <<

An important aspect of every artist is their image. To put it bluntly, her visual direction and general vibe is kind of absurd. It feels like she slung paint at the wall and called a day. While that may be true, it weirdly... kind of works? Most of her photoshoots depict her in a mismatched outfit or a strange scene. While it all might seem meaningless, I think the image she's creating is actually very interesting and there might be more to it than what meets the eye. Throughout her album, a common theme is her insecurities and how she tends to keep up an act to be socially acceptable. She's very honest about how she's had to grow up and accept the way she looks, and how she takes off her cool clothes when she gets home cause "who wants to wear those?" It's another relatable experience- feeling like we have to make up for the areas we think we are lacking in. For example, wearing a really good outfit to "make up" for your appearances. This is a really interesting idea that isn't explored to this degree very often. To tie it all back to my point, her artistic vision is to get rid of all the social theatrics and just be completely raw and transparent. The visuals do a good job of this, not just because it gets a little wacky here and there, but because it's making a point that actually supports the source material rather than being a visual that solely exists to please the eye. That's not to say that all album visuals have to be super intentional and serious, but in this case, it does a really good job at driving the point home.

>> Final thoughts <<

After all the gushing I just did, you would probably expect me to start singing endless praise about how she's the best artist to grace the earth and that her next project will be undoubtedly just as good as the first. But honestly, it's hard to tell where Audrey will go from here. There's no doubt in my mind that she has talent, but it can be hard to say how successful she will continue to be as her career continues. Her style leans so heavily into this awkward and honest songwriting that I don't know how she could do it again without it feeling too samesy. Regardless, I'm still going to look forward to whatever she does next! I hope that I've been able to convince you to give Audrey a listen! Her debut album is a really fun listening experience if you want to go give it a try. I'll link her Spotify down below. Thanks as always for reading, and I hope you have a good rest of your week!

Earworm ~-~-~o

Thanks for reading!

-Joey :)