It doesn’t get much funkier than parking on the dance floor! Also a good way to get the attention of that girl you like. Shot from the official music video directed by Gus Black and released 24 July 2025
(10) FUNK: SOMBR – 12 TO 12
“In a room full of people, I look for you”
Well, looks like I’ve found my standout song for 2025 and hence my new wildcard tenth place entry, according to my usual rule reserving that place for my favorite entry from the present or previous year.
Sombr is the stage name of Shane Michael Boose – essentially a play on his initials and the word somber – “an American singer, songwriter, and record producer”.
Although he released his debut single in 2021 and first EP in 2023, it was two singles (“Back to Friends” and “Undressed”) in 2025 that went viral on social media and became his breakout hits. That was followed by his debut studio album (I Barely Know Her – a title that encapsulates his recurring themes of “heartbreak, unrequited love, and emotional introspection” throughout his songs, including this one). That album included those two previous singles, as well as two follow up singles, including this entry.
“The song mixes ’80s-style synth-pop and new wave with hints of ’70s funk and blues, highlighted by Sombr’s vocals that shift between falsetto and rough growls…The track was described as walking the line between “repurposed funk with fuzzy blues licks” and hints of “bongo hits”. Sombr’s “shifting” vocals, alternating between a “lustful falsetto” and a “hungry, distorted growl” throughout the track were said to “ooze suave and mischievousness”. Sombr sings to a love interest, uncertain whether his feelings are being reciprocated.”
I don’t quite know the meaning of repurposed funk with fuzzy blues licks but it had me at funk, as the song did, with what seems to me more than hints of ’70s funk. That is reinforced by the video, which features a mirror-balled disco dance floor – where a sunglass-wearing Sombr has incongruously parked his car but damn it looks good. Social media personality and singer Addison Rae features as his love interest of the song – one that looks pretty requited in the video but the scenes of Sombr floating unconscious in a pool (with a great shot past him to the two police officers looking at him in the pool) suggests otherwise, and in my mind that the whole video might be his dream life flashing before his eyes so to speak.
RATING:
X-TIER (WILD TIER)