Audrey Hobert

Monday, July 27 · First Avenue

PopSinger-SongwriterAll Ages

★ racket - My defenses were up with this one. Hobert has co-written with bland-out queen Gracie Abrams and her brother is Malcolm Todd, who is basically Steve Lacy’s own private Pat Boone. But Hobert’s full-length debut, Who’s the Clown?, is a decent little tour of the perils of dating in your 20s, from guys whose beds don’t have headboards to “When I'm drunk at the club I wanna be felt up” to “Don’t go back to his ass/That shit is a trap.” So why’s she keep at it? Like the lady says, “Sue me/I want to be wanted.” With pop-star imitators a given, I’ll take Xeroxed Olivia over carbon copy Taylor when it comes to second-stringers, because jokes that try a little too hard are easier to get across than strained candor.