Depositing what he made on a Bandcamp page, the result was an assortment of disparate ingredients: the sound of his laugh tape-sped to surreality, a birthday song about carnitas for his step mother, fuzzed-out rockers that snuff out before they seem to begin. “It’s my way of getting lost,” says Llobet. Recently arriving in New York, Llobet discovered music as a creative and therapeutic outlet. Compare & Despair sounds like returning to your hometown to rewrite the narrative of your youth with attitude and a confetti cannon. youbet’s sound captures that disorder, a backwards world where the adults act like children and kids are on their own to maintain any semblance of order. Raised in Davie, Florida, by his Cuban immigrant father and first-generation Italian American mother who divorced, Llobet sensed chaos lurking around every corner. Its bright, shocking cover art depicts a cast of psychotropic cartoon characters, each representing a different song. His vision is fully formed on Compare & Despair, driven by equal parts humor and melancholy.

Musically adventurous and lyrically intimate, writer Nick Llobet’s vocals lilt, hiss and command attention. The thirteen songs on youbet’s debut hit like relentless bursts of color.

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