Sound Club Listening Guide
The Artist
Audrey Hobert is a Los Angeles based singer-songwriter who spent years quietly building a creative resume as a writer and collaborator, most notably co-writing songs on her best friend Gracie Abrams' records. A film school graduate with a screenwriter's eye for detail, she stepped into the spotlight as an artist in her own right in 2025, translating her observational storytelling instincts into hooky, diaristic bedroom pop. Her voice is conversational and unpolished in the best way, favoring blunt honesty over polish, and her songs tend to read like text messages set to melody. Who's the Clown? is her debut album, arriving after a small run of singles that quickly earned her a devoted online following.
The Album
Who's the Clown? landed in 2025 as Hobert's proper introduction, developed largely alongside longtime collaborator Blake Slatkin, whose fingerprints show up in the record's blend of intimate acoustic textures and glossy pop production. The album was written in a burst of creative momentum, with Hobert drawing directly from her own dating life, friendships, and the awkward comedy of being in your mid-twenties in LA. Sonically it lives somewhere between coffeehouse folk-pop and internet-native indie, keeping arrangements loose enough that her voice and words stay front and center. Thematically it circles crushes, self-sabotage, female friendship, and the small humiliations of trying to be a person who wants things.
Listen For
Screenwriter's eye for detail. Hobert stuffs her verses with hyper-specific images and proper nouns. Notice how "Bowling alley" and "Chateau" use location as emotional shorthand.
Conversational vocal delivery. Her phrasing often sounds closer to talking than singing, especially on "I like to touch people" and "Sue me". Listen for how she lets lines run past the beat.
Pop culture as feelings. Track how "Sex and the city" uses a shared cultural touchstone to sneak up on something more vulnerable underneath.
Friendship as through-line. "Dont go back to his ass" and "Phoebe" foreground the voice of the concerned best friend, a perspective that quietly frames the whole record.
Closer as emotional pivot. "Silver Jubilee" shifts the tone from the album's earlier comedic bite. Notice what the arrangement pulls back to expose.
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