Ones2Watch Home

Photo: Aitor Laspiur

The internet’s boyfriend, Omar Apollo comes heart-wrenchingly clean and makes it sexy on his second full-length album, God Said No.

Heartbreak is a pain both transformative and debilitating, no matter how many times you endure it. From synth-pop to R&B, Apollo journeys through varying avenues of sound while trailing a narrative of romantic grief and lingering desire. There’s no true consolation; we end the project nearly dizzier than how we began, a true testament to how messy a love’s undoing can be.

“Life’s Unfair” daggers with lines “When I was kissing him, I was seeing you, I would’ve married you.” Apollo begs himself to let go, yet drowns underneath regret and sorrow. He gives himself permission to be enraged nonetheless, trying on new lovers for size and shifting blame from partner to partner. Though, ultimately, you still taste traces of love in his subdued harmonies and acoustic yearning.

Born in Indiana while nurtured by Mexican roots, Apollo continues to leave traces of his heritage embedded in his work, singing in Spanish on the atmospheric track “Empty.” He mentions preferring to sing another language so that his subject can’t understand the lyrics, a safety net to be the most unhinged.

Taking the project on the road alongside Kevin Abstract, Ravyn Lenae, and Malcolm Todd, God Said No finally belonging to the world has only made fans more eager for their sold-out shows. Each performance is sure to be a reckoning, collectively healing as we all see fragments of ourselves in the outpouring of his pain.

Listen to God Said No below: