I stumbled upon Boy Pablo on the fateful day I listened to “Ready/Problems.”

I was completing homework while listening to songs on YouTube when autoplay skipped to a song I’d never heard before. At first, when I heard the unfamiliar percussion, I was put off by the change and clicked to my last tab to switch the song.

But as the enticing strings playing really caught my ear, I found myself enjoying it. The notes filled me with the feeling of losing someone and letting go; the lyrics continued this sentiment. The lead vocalist, Nicholas Pablo Muñoz, expressed profound feelings by starting out with a hopeless tone that crescendoed into louder and bolder belted notes that conveyed anguish and despair.

This wasn’t the band’s first time working together to produce beautiful music though.

In late 2015, the band was originally established and later came out with singles such as “Flowers” and “Beach House Interlude.” “Flowers” is a track about tradition. When the song begins, it starts out with a very airy and wispy melody that feels like fall and gradually converts into a happy-go-lucky tune, creating an overall appealing song.

“Beach House” is more of an island tune and is unlike their usual tracks. It has a very relaxing mood with soft guitar and subtle singing that could put me to sleep, in the best way.

These two singles paved a path for Boy Pablo and gained attention from many, resulting in their 2017 album, Roy Pablo. In addition to “Ready/Problems,” the band pumped out “Everytime” and “Dance, Baby!”

The most popular song from Boy Pablo is most definitely “Everytime“ and for good reason. The song illustrates unrequited love with a beautiful melody to accompany it. “Dance, Baby!” on the other hand, is not necessarily popular or a hit in any way, but it has a special place in my heart. The song displays the perspective of a boy in love with a girl who finds himself overshadowed by another guy. The lyrics clash with the upbeat melody making for an amazing expressive song.

Soy Pablo is the new album that I think is more polished and has more variation; it’s nothing groundbreaking but shows more improvement for sure. Some notable songs from this album include “tkm,” “Feeling Lonely,” and “Sick Feeling.” “tkm” was also one of my first favorites; it clocks in at five minutes, but five minutes never seems to be enough. It strongly reminds me of 80s, coming-of-age movies, from the drums to the guitar. “Feeling Lonely” seems like an underrated song, but it conveys a perfect projection of how I feel when I’m lonely. While it is a radiant song, it has dejected lyrics to sing along to.

Of course, I loved this album. I’ll continue to love this band, but I believe their new album wasn’t really anything new or different as it was strictly developmental. I hope to see Boy Pablo experiment more with their sound and try something different than their usual sound. Each song is starting to sound like the same.

However, whatever Boy Pablo tries next, I’ll be excited to see what their experiments lead to.