LOS ANGELES, CA- Audrey Hobert’s new single “Sex and the City” caught me off guard in the best way. I have heard some of her earlier tracks, and to be honest, they never fully landed for me. They felt aimed at a younger world that I am not really part of anymore. But this song hits different. Maybe it is the title, maybe it is the way she frames the whole thing like a sideways tribute to a show that practically defined dating culture when I was younger. Whatever it is, it pulled me in right away.
The lyrics feel like flipping through memories you did not realize you still had. Audrey sets the scene with the kind of moments that used to make up whole nights when you were in your twenties. Writing alone in your room. Going out hoping something small and stupid might turn into something meaningful. Laughing at yourself when it does not. That tug between wanting to be admired and knowing full well that most nights, nobody is paying attention. There is something really funny about the way she leans into that, but there is also a truth beneath it that feels pretty universal.
For anyone who lived through the original wave of “Sex and the City,” you can feel her winking at what we expected adulthood to look like. Back then, the fantasy was that someone would recognize your work in public or that a passing connection at a bar would somehow spark into something exciting. The real version, at least for most of us, was messy. Bars that felt important only because they were familiar. Chemistry that depended mostly on lighting and timing. Uber rides where the music mattered more than the person you were with. Audrey taps into that gap between the dream and the reality with a kind of playful shrug.
The middle part of the song goes even deeper into that old familiar chaos. The guy who seems promising until he actually talks. The quick decision to go home with someone even though you already know how the night ends. The little details she throws in feel almost too real. The haunted apartment. The missing headboard. The microwaved pizza pocket that he eats without offering you one. Anyone who has lived through the dating scene long enough has at least one night that mirrors this in spirit. It is embarrassing, funny, human, and completely relatable.
What makes the song so sticky is how casually honest it is. She rolls through the high, the boredom, the attraction, the regret, and the exaggerated optimism that makes you think maybe this person is important for half a second before reality catches up. The closing lines feel like the punchline to every night that was supposed to be something more but never quite got there. You swear you will not do it again, even though everyone knows you probably will.
For me, that is what makes this song work. Even as a middle-aged guy who is definitely not the target demographic, I found myself laughing because so much of it reminded me of nights from my own younger years. Nights that went nowhere, nights that turned into stories you tell later, nights when the whole point was just figuring out what you wanted. Audrey captures that with a kind of youthful looseness, but it lands across generations because the truth does not really change.
“Sex and the City” is an earwig, sure, but it is also a surprisingly sharp little snapshot of what it feels like to chase connection while pretending to have it all figured out. If this is where Audrey Hobert is headed as a songwriter, I might be paying a lot more attention from here on out.
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AUDREY HOBERT LIVE
December––The Independent––San Francisco, CA
December 4––El Rey Theatre––Los Angeles, CA
December 5––iHeart Jingle Ball––Los Angeles, CA
December 7––The Great Hall – Longboat Hall––Toronto, ON
December 8––iHeart Jingle Ball––Chicago, IL
December 9––Lincoln Hall––Chicago, IL
December 14––The Foundry at The Fillmore––Philadelphia, PA
December 16––Music Hall of Williamsburg––Brooklyn, NY
December 17––The Sinclair––Cambridge, MA
December 18––The Atlantis––Washington, DC
February 27––Melkweg––Amsterdam, NL
February 28––Live Music Hall––Cologne, DE
March 2––Huxleys Neue Welt––Berlin, Germany
March 2––Metropol––Berlin, DE
March 3––Melkweg––Amsterdam, NL
March 5––La Madeleine––Belgium, BE
March 6––Live Music Hall––Cologne, DE
March 8––The Trianon––Paris, FR
March 10––O2 Forum Kentish Town––London, U.K.
March 11––O2 Forum Kentish Town––London, U.K.
March 13––O2 Academy––Bristol, U.K.
March 14––O2 Victoria Warehouse––Birmingham, U.K.
March 15––O2 Ritz––Manchester, U.K.
March 17––O2 Academy––Glasgow, U.K.
March 19––3Olympia––Dublin, IE
May 9––Powerstation––Auckland, NZ
May 10––Powerstation––Auckland, NZ
May 12––Enmore Theatre––Sydney, AUS
May 13––Enmore Theatre––Sydney, AUS
May 16––Fortitude Music Hall––Brisbane, AUS
May 19––Forum––Melbourne, AUS
May 20––Forum––Melbourne, AUS
