I BARELY KNOW HER BY SOMBR: Reviewed!
Between episodes 3 and 4 of our ALBUM CLUB SERIES there were 9 regular eps, as well as 1 movie special! This time out, we did an album club barely 2 episodes ago! And we’re already back in business baby. Maybe this *is* a monthly affair, we just also … miss a lot of months sometimes! Depends. However any one feels about this, it is a vibes thing. Out here in podcast land! The answer is blowing in the wind and you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows and all!
Now as a special treat for shownotes fans, let me formally elucidate my brief rundown in poet’s corner of my out-of-ten ratings of the central, concrete idea/refrain/title of every song (song titles without caps, as opposed to the album title … I am paying attention!) on I Barely Know Her:
crushing: good. Solid. A word doing more than one thing. A crush is a crush but *also* you are crushing my soul now. Rude. How something so nice became something so violent. We are playing with language. Fine. 8, outta the gate!
12 to 12: I guess those are the hours in a day, sure. 5.
i wish i knew how to quit you: he wishes he knew how to quit her. Cute. It is hard for me to see “i” not capitalised but it is an emotive chorus refrain that he turns into the title. I will take it. 7.
back to friends: does what it says on the tin, again. 6.
canal street: ok, this is giving SONG. Place name. And he refers to the place name in the song. Excellent. 7.
dime: I will not elaborate further on what I said on the pod. 3.
undressed: Lovely. We love the metaphor that can also work literally. 8.
come closer: Christopher called it filler, not me! But yeah. A very 5 title.
we never dated: Kind of fun. I’m intrigued. For someone who deals with a lot of unrequited love, tell me more about this “never dating” thing. Similar to “i wish i knew how to quit you” like it is fun when you just state things Shane-o! 7.
under the mat: Another metaphor that works beautifully as a metaphor and this time not quite as well literally. But still makes sense both ways in a nice, poetic way. 6.5. Averages out to a 6.25 across the album. Which feels more than fair and might reflect the 1.25 worth of Christopher’s enthusiasm we needed to get to our total album score!
Listen to the album here: https://music.apple.com/gb/album/i-barely-know-her/1832087626
Even though Spotify doesn’t feature it, Apple music also features what looks like one album before this 1 … cool. Also, his hair looks less curly on this cover! Calling Christopher! Need to discuss hair: https://music.apple.com/gb/album/in-another-life/1704942257
Genius has some great coverage of all the lyrics on the album right here (“parts” or “burns” though people! “Parts” or “burns”?): https://genius.com/albums/Sombr/I-barely-know-her
Christopher guessed I would pitch something from 1995 and I actually picked something from 1996 so he was only ONE YEAR OFF! Two album clubs in a row where we each guess a single year off! That’s crazy. Like I’m still winning the guess-the-year gamer or whatever but that stat right there, for consecutive-episode-respective-guesses … THAT MUST BE A RECORD! Early days for album club, I guess every stat is a “record” of sorts. But still. You’ve got to smell the roses! 10 seasons of rose-sniffin', folks. So much infographic-based fan art to celebrate such stunning stats in the years to come I’m sure. Maybe we’ll even sign some of them at our anniversary reunion shows! And for those of you who are really following through with every connective thread: yes, it does seem like Christopher fell victim to another proprietary eponym (google it, don’t chap gpt it!) cos I was not having a Berocca tablet in my drink, it was Waitrose’s Own Essential Vitamins! These are the shownotes this week people.
OUR COLLECTIVE CCCAAH/AAACH score: seven and a half out of ten
The most important show link: cccappraisalhour.show
Spoiler below for next month’s album: Fun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nlI1Mjy-uQ
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