Who's the Clown?
Audrey Hobert
Who's the Clown? is the debut studio album from Los Angeles-born singer-songwriter Audrey Hobert, released on August 15, 2025 via RCA/Columbia Records. Hobert's path to the album was unconventional: a former screenwriter and reluctant musician, she began writing songs with her roommate and close friend Gracie Abrams in 2024, co-writing several tracks that ended up on Abrams' breakout album The Story of Us — including "That's So True." Her own breakout single, "Sue Me," went viral in May 2025 for its "borderline unhinged" lyrics about an ex-hookup, and the debut album that followed established her as one of pop's most distinctive and genuinely funny new voices. Produced alongside Ricky Gourmet, Who's the Clown? spans twelve tracks of hook-laden, confessional indie pop that Apple Music describes as "playing out like voice memos from your funniest friend" — she's drunk in an Uber on "Sex and the City," bored at an A-list party on "Chateau," and reckoning with insecurity through a Friends binge on "Phoebe."
Critical response was enthusiastic, if not without qualification. Rolling Stone praised Hobert as "one of pop's great new voices" and called the album "cinematic," crediting her screenwriting background for songs that "deserve their own coming-of-age miniseries." Pitchfork noted the album's songs "sound like a fittingly verbose, conversational, and unfiltered extension" of her work with Abrams, though felt it struggled to transcend biographical specificity in its second half. Clash called it one of the most impressive debuts of 2025, praising Hobert's ability to turn "pain into punchlines and private thoughts into shared mantras," while noting the record can grow repetitive in theme and melody. Northern Transmissions gave it 7.5, noting that "Hobert's keen eye and droll delivery means Who's the Clown? is never too serious — the titular clown, of course, is sometimes her." The album debuted at No. 40 on US Top Current Album Sales and reached No. 9 on the Scottish Albums chart, signaling a genuinely international audience for a debut built entirely on the intimacy of oversharing.
Who's the Clown?
Audrey Hobert
Who's the Clown? is the debut studio album from Los Angeles-born singer-songwriter Audrey Hobert, released on August 15, 2025 via RCA/Columbia Records. Hobert's path to the album was unconventional: a former screenwriter and reluctant musician, she began writing songs with her roommate and close friend Gracie Abrams in 2024, co-writing several tracks that ended up on Abrams' breakout album The Story of Us — including "That's So True." Her own breakout single, "Sue Me," went viral in May 2025 for its "borderline unhinged" lyrics about an ex-hookup, and the debut album that followed established her as one of pop's most distinctive and genuinely funny new voices. Produced alongside Ricky Gourmet, Who's the Clown? spans twelve tracks of hook-laden, confessional indie pop that Apple Music describes as "playing out like voice memos from your funniest friend" — she's drunk in an Uber on "Sex and the City," bored at an A-list party on "Chateau," and reckoning with insecurity through a Friends binge on "Phoebe."
Critical response was enthusiastic, if not without qualification. Rolling Stone praised Hobert as "one of pop's great new voices" and called the album "cinematic," crediting her screenwriting background for songs that "deserve their own coming-of-age miniseries." Pitchfork noted the album's songs "sound like a fittingly verbose, conversational, and unfiltered extension" of her work with Abrams, though felt it struggled to transcend biographical specificity in its second half. Clash called it one of the most impressive debuts of 2025, praising Hobert's ability to turn "pain into punchlines and private thoughts into shared mantras," while noting the record can grow repetitive in theme and melody. Northern Transmissions gave it 7.5, noting that "Hobert's keen eye and droll delivery means Who's the Clown? is never too serious — the titular clown, of course, is sometimes her." The album debuted at No. 40 on US Top Current Album Sales and reached No. 9 on the Scottish Albums chart, signaling a genuinely international audience for a debut built entirely on the intimacy of oversharing.