In the latest TikTok phenomenon, singer Malcolm Todd has taken the music scene by storm this past year. It turns out that being a talented musician runs in the family. His older sister, Audrey Hobert, also put out her debut album just months after Malcolm’s — both being top tier albums in my opinion. However, Audrey doesn’t steal any sort of spotlight from her more popular brother, but rather, making her own space in the music industry with her own different following, her own style of music. I want to dive into the artistry of Audrey’s album, “Who’s The Clown?”, and how this album is simply perfect for the college girl.
During the summer, Audrey’s lead single “Sue Me” flooded my For You Page on Tiktok. Along with thousands of others online, the craze for her album became more popular, with even one TikTok saying “Audrey Hobert’s album is perfect for college sophomore girls”. I decided on the roadtrip, moving back to college for my sophomore year, I would give this album a listen and test that theory. And it was right. I could not have chosen a better album to encapsulate the feeling of returning college and what it is like being in this phase in my life. Not that Audrey explicitly wrote this album about being a college girl, but a lot of the experiences she talks about in this album, I feel like I relate to so much at this point in my life.
Some of my favorite tracks are “Silver Jubilee”, “Sex in the City” and “Thirst Trap”. The lyrics in these songs really resonate with me as a young woman and what my experiences look like.
In “Silver Jubilee”, the way I think about this song is it really shows how fast life moves and to find the beauty in all the little moments before the moment passes. I love lyrics like “I’ma put my drink up, it’s drinks up now / I’ma tell my sister she’s perfect / Yeah, I’ma live it up like my life starts now / Blink and you could miss it, it’s over, it’s all night”, I think it just captures living in the moment and just being grateful of what you have around you, whether that is a sister who you love or a situation you can cheer to. Or in the second verse, the lyrics really give off girlhood and how dreadful it can be to give your friends romantic advice, especially when the outcome typically repeats itself. I feel like giving friends repeated advice they won’t follow is such a universal experience in girlhood and why I relate so much. Girlhood has so many components, most of which hit you hard during college when adulthood starts to kick in. This song has many elements that are not complex, but cohesively come together to give you a relatable experience when listening. By far, I feel the most connected to this song and it is my favorite song on the album.
Self-image has probably got to be one of the biggest battles I’ve fought. Sure, I can light up a room and be confident at times, but honestly, I struggle a lot to believe that it’s real. It’s hard to actually be confident in my own head. Although I feel like I have grown tremendously as a person and so has my love for myself, there are times where I feel like it shouldn’t have. It sucks to feel that way about yourself especially when it’s coming from the only opinion that matters. And it doesn’t help when you haven’t had an outsider opinion prove me wrong, or just know that someone else admires me romantically. I know I am so loved within my friends and connections, but I have never experienced romance and I truly want to. This song perfectly explains that feeling for me. “And if he’s hot and seems into it, it’s accidental / What’s it like to be admired / Hot and desired” Kind of explains the feeling of wondering what it would feel like to know that someone wants you. I feel like in college, you go through so many new conflicts or new obstacles that even if an issue isn’t related to physical appearance (for example), everything piles up on you and takes a toll on you. Your confidence is not immune to that. Being in college, seeing others around you in relationships or forming new ones, and not even getting close to that stage, not even knowing if anyone is even attracted to you really eats at you and the lyrics in this song just take you through that experience and help you relate more than anything.
Lastly, “Thirst Trap”. This song tackles two topics for me: falling hard for someone and not recognizing yourself while growing up and changing. Similar to the confidence issue from the previous song, when you don’t like who you are, or rather how you look, or even how you’ve changed as a person, it becomes harder to recognize yourself. While going through those emotions, that doesn’t mean you stop liking others. I find myself the type of person to not be the most in love with myself, but I will fall head first for the idea of someone. In doing so, I get so caught up and infatuated with the person I am feeling that it’ll consume me more than how I feel about myself. I feel like the pre-chorus and chorus of this song really captures that internal battle and the mix of feelings between someone else and yourself: “Wake up, and I’m thinkin’ ’bout, I’m thinkin’ ’bout you / Can’t read, or write, or do what I like to do, ooh / I spend my days 4/20 blazed just thinkin’, “What’s he gonna do?” / I’m takin’ thirst traps in the mirror in my room / I think I look bad, so I change the lightin’ / I used to kick back, watchin’ movies and the news / But now I’m lame, it’s such a shame, I used to be so super cool”. Like the aforementioned track, college is a time when you will doubt yourself, your confidence and everything around you. Whether it’s appearance, academic stress or life moving too fast – you lose track of who you have become and whether it’s the person you want to be. It’s a tough thing to shake, but that’s why this internal battle between two of these consistent topics in my life mean something because it shows so clearly just how complex and conflicting the different parts of your life can be and how they still make you who you are.
Overall, college is a really weird transitional time in your life. You’re introduced and handling adulthood, finding who you may truly be and spending time on a future you don’t know what will look like nor won’t experience yet. It is a lot of uncertainty, a lot of questioning and a lot of doubt but every experience is valid. Every experience builds you up to where you are now and who you’ve become, and I feel like any song on this album can provide you with at least one experience you relate to in some way during this time in our lives, which is what makes it such a great album for the typical college girl experience.