Singer/songwriter Sofia Wolfson’s whimsical new single “Obviously” is a playful ode to a missed connection – and an aching portrait of trying to date through the ghost of a past relationship that refuses to leave the room.

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Stream: “Obviously” – Sofia Wolfson

“Obviously” begins with the question of a romantic connection that refuses to be forgotten.

It gets at the grief of a past relationship, which pulls up a chair on your date when you’re attempting to move on. In this new single, Sofia Wolfson asks: “How does one absent the feeling?” Absent as a verb! Wolfson’s lyrics always scratch that writerly itch in my brain.

Obviously he wasn’t you
Not sure why I chose to assume
Quickly moving on was easy
How does one absent the feeling?

This old two-top, it’s too small
To comfortably sit us all
I’m seeing double till I’m crosseyed
Wish it was you in stranger’s disguise

I listened to “Obviously” on a sunrise Amtrak ride out of the city, with hotel sheets already on my mind. I felt the whimsy of it with my forehead pressing the window. Even the title carried this feeling of inevitability. It’s like, Obviously the song is about you. Obviously I still think about it. The production is on the upbeat side of wistful, with a cheeky piano melody. Wolfson sings:

“Started saying I love you when
You weren’t looking
Just to get it out of my system
Are you missing the
Chicago hotel as much as I am”

There is this image of the world that can be made between two people, the expansiveness of a hotel room pillow fortress and flimsy future-talk:

“Laughing blissed out, body stretched out
Talking children, jobs and hometowns”

There is such playfulness in this, capturing that dreaming which feels easy in the limbo of clean sheets. But the lyrics have heft. It is an in-between place: not home, and not commitment. I hear a thread with Wolfson’s 2024 album, Imposing on a Hometown, when she sings:

“Man, you’re gonna unfold
Against your own logic
And like a good dog, I’m gonna drop it
Acting against my better judgement”

“‘Obviously’ is about the bizarre experience of trying to date someone else while still in the depths of grieving a past relationship,” Wolfson tells Atwood Magazine. “It’s as if the person you loved is sitting at the table with you, refusing to let you be alone, eavesdropping on strained conversation. This single is the sonic introduction to a new chapter of my music, stripped down to a band in a room, yet still adorned with whimsical, strange textures and unexpected moments.”

“Obviously” speaks to how futile the dating scene can seem when you, once or twice, however briefly, have tasted the real thing. But the feeling it gives is not hopeless, though inescapable, chasing the desire to feel that connection again.

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Stream: “Obviously” – Sofia Wolfson

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 © Michael Tyrone Delaney

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