Holly Humberstone

by Claudio Lancia

Born in Nottingham in 1999, Holly Humberstone launched her recording career at a far from easy moment, in 2020, with the EP "Falling Asleep At The Wheel", followed by "The Walls Are Way Too Thin", her first release after signing with Interscope and Polydor. In 2022 Humberstone won the Brit Award in the "Rising Star" category — not bad — and a year later came her debut album "Paint My Bedroom Black". In 2024 came another EP, "Work In Progress", followed by some major support slots, including a date on the Eras Tour, and in 2026 "Cruel World" — her second album — which finally launched her into orbit, followed by an acclaimed double performance across both weekends of Coachella Festival.

With the songs on "Cruel World", Humberstone ventures into livelier territory than her previous work, which was marked by a far more intimate mood. "So It Begins…" is the brief orchestral intro that within a minute throws itself into the arms of "Make It Better", an ideal stylistic bridge to the past, before "To Love Somebody" brings a real gust of renewal: a moderately sunny pop track that's led many to draw comparisons with Taylor Swift. And the closeness isn't limited to a few lines or the occasional confessional flourish — no, in "Make It Better" you can clearly hear echoes of the indie-folk of "Folklore", while "To Love Somebody" gives the strong sensation of suddenly finding yourself back inside the synthpop that powered "1989". Choosing to open the album of truth this way is no small gamble, but Holly knows how to break away from her own reference points to test other directions.

Her pop can be tinged with melancholy (the title track), deeply emotional ("Die Happy"), wildly infectious ("White Noise", which some hear as Kylie Minogue but could just as easily be her own take on Sabrina Carpenter, with that impeccably retro flair — though the sumptuous "Blue Dream" is no less striking), or built on supremely sticky choruses ("Drunk Dialling"), with the common thread running through it all being an utter devotion to the sounds of the 1980s. There's also an acoustic moment, courtesy of "Lucy", with a search for essentiality that in its own way recalls the Beatles' "Blackbird", plus a few more minimalist passages that bring to mind some of the most moving moments from other pop stars of the caliber of Gracie Abrams or Olivia Rodrigo.

Closing things out is the intense delicacy of "Beauty Pageant", described by Humberstone herself as the most vulnerable song she's written so far. The lyrics explore her own attitude towards women after growing up with three sisters, attending an all-girls school, and entering the music industry at a very young age — a path that for a time led her to see other women only as competitors. "Beauty Pageant" is therefore a song about the unrealistic expectations girls place on themselves, and about trying to navigate a world that isn't built for them. Not yet, anyway. Rounding off the project, two months later Humberstone released "It's A Real Cruel World", an EP featuring four tracks from "Cruel World" reimagined in entirely new versions.