Music

ISSUE 19: HOLLY HUMBERSTONE’S CRUEL WORLD

 

On her second LP,

the British musician

explores the thrill and sting of

first love and heartbreak

in her most cinematic era yet.

 

Words by Erica Campbell

 

“I went through this identity crisis,” Holly Humberstone says with a knowing smile. She’s on a video call with Marvin right after a photoshoot, her hair still pinned in retro waves.

“I’m constantly going through an identity crisis. Being in your twenties … I don’t think you ever finish.”

With a top-three debut album, opening slots for Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift, a Brit Rising Star Award, and performances on world-renowned stages like Coachella and Glastonbury, it’s safe to say her teens were successful.

Still, as she moved beyond her debut album, Paint My Bedroom Black—stepping into both her second studio release and womanhood—her tendency toward moodier, darker, and more authentic songwriting began to pierce through the noise of her accolades.

“I’ve done so much growing up through writing this album and just existing,” she says of Cruel World, her second album.

“There’s been a lot going on in my personal life. I’ve been documenting my experience of being in love for the first time and realizing that this kind of love is very painful at its core, which isn’t what I expected. Exploring that dichotomy of pain and pleasure existing within the same space.”

Instead of turning away from the dark underbelly of love, Humberstone dove in.

“I think that’s just a general thing in life, isn’t it?” she says. “There’s no way around these things and you have to learn it all yourself as an adult in your twenties and thirties.”

Much of the aesthetics in the videos, photography, and even tonality of Cruel World play into the dark fairy tales she loved as a child.

She worked with creative director Silken Weinberg to shape a world garmented in Victorian lace and enchanting backdrops, inspired by the likes of Edward Scissorhands, the Brothers Grimm fairy tales and Nosferatu.

“I used to be obsessed with fantasy stories as a kid,” she says. “I found this old book of Brothers Grimm fairy tales that are so disturbing and dark. But I remember being obsessed with them. And it was one of those things where you’re like, I hate it, but I can’t look away. Those fantasy gothic stories where the heroine — whether that’s Alice in Wonderland or Dorothy [in The Wizard of Oz], somebody escapes their life into this alternate universe to make sense of big changes going on in the real world.”

The timing of this inner and outer expedition made perfect sense, since much of it took place while moving out of her childhood home.

“We’re all hoarders,” she laughs. “There are six of us. I’ve always lived in this crumbling house in the Midlands, in the middle of nowhere. I was going back and forth from the Midlands to London to help my parents clear it out. Through that process, I rediscovered so many old items I used to treasure.”

Those sigils, pieces of jewelry, ballet flats, and pieces from her childhood acted as reminders of who she was before notoriety. She brought them with her to her new home in London, treating them like a North Star back to herself.

“I felt like I’d forgotten about her a little bit in these past few years because I’ve been swept up in this confusing, amazing, scary industry. I feel like I’ve discovered who I am at my core again. I feel like for that reason, this album sounds more me than anything that I’ve ever released.”

The album’s lead single, “To Love Somebody,” details what it’s like to witness the aftermath of a brutal breakup, sharing the advice “at least you got to love somebody,” over springy piano keys, carefully bandaging the scar of heartbreak with the reminder of the painful delight of being human.

“Somebody I’m really close to was going through a breakup,” she recalls. “I felt I needed to get this out, and I can articulate myself so much better in a song than I can in a conversation with somebody. I saw this whole breakup from such a different perspective than she did. I see this amazing girl with all of life’s prospects before her, and this really crappy guy had just done her dirty. I wanted to write an affirming song for her to tell her, ‘This loss you feel now, and this grief is just like a measure of the love that you felt.’ Being a human is about feeling every emotion on the spectrum that life has to offer. It’s just part of being a human being, and it’s a privilege to get to experience love.”

In the glittery album title Cruel World, she crafts her own dream reality, one where she can’t live without the touch of the object of her desire, breathlessly asking if “this time” they’ll stay.

“I came home after writing ‘Cruel World,’ and I played it to my sisters, and I said, ‘I think this is the best song I’ve ever written,’” she explains. “I’m obsessed with this song. It’s about how your whole perception of the world around you can look so different when one detail, one person, is missing. Everything clicked into place [when I wrote it].”

In her second release, there’s an ease and confidence in Humberstone’s approach, one she found through the epiphany that she could take control of her creative path by realizing she had “nothing to lose.”

“I’m gonna make this my own and have fun with it,” she explains. “I want to look back on this period of my life, this amazing opportunity that I have to release music and to be a recording artist … my dream since I was like five. I’ve had the revelation this past year that I want to be proud of this work I’m so lucky to be able to make and put out, and I want to look back and enjoy it and make it my own and stand behind what I make. I feel like I’m at that point in my life where I’m taking control and taking the reins. I’m finally the boss of my own project and the boss of my own life, which is a really amazing feeling.”