Love You in the Dark

Love You in the Dark

Minneapolis-based producer and songwriter Brad Hale—a.k.a. Sombear—has been endorsed by Death Cab for Cutie guitarist/producer Chris Walla, whose Trans-Records label first split a 7” single with Sombear. Now the label has released his debut album, the appropriately titled Love You in the Dark. These are nocturnal, electronically enhanced romantic numbers where the somber ends of “Loose Ship” casts a sense of warmth in the vocals and a skittish intensity in the sequenced rhythms. “Never Say Baby,” “The Way We Are,” and “LA” reflect Hale’s teenaged fascinations with Britney Spears and The Spice Girls—which might come as a surprise to fans of his band Now Now but that makes for exciting club-ready dance workouts for everyone else. Though Hale maintains the songs address the uncertainties of life as a twentysomething, there’s an energy here that suggests everything will work out just fine.

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