British singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone has announced her second studio album, 'Cruel World', due out on April 10. The reveal includes the confessional single 'To Love Somebody', which delves into the dualities of love and pain. She has also shared tour dates for headline shows in Europe and the UK this spring.
Holly Humberstone, the Grantham-based artist who won the BRIT Rising Star award in 2022, is making her return with 'Cruel World', following her 2023 debut LP 'Paint My Bedroom Black' and the 2024 EP 'Work In Progress'. Her most recent release was the single 'Die Happy' in November.
The lead single 'To Love Somebody' is a vulnerable pop track featuring lyrics like “In the movie of your life / You’re the first to die / And the critics called it trash.” Its official video, directed by Silken Weinberg, incorporates references to German expressionist films. Humberstone explained the song's essence: “The record explores love as beautiful and inherently painful. In ‘To Love Somebody’, I wanted to capture that contradiction: to love somebody, is to hurt somebody and to lose somebody, well at least you got to love somebody. In order to feel extreme happiness, you have to know extreme sadness. That’s the tension of the record.”
To support the album, Humberstone has announced headline dates from February to April, including stops in Brussels, Cologne, Berlin, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol, and London's Shepherd’s Bush Empire on April 2. Additional performances include Coachella on April 12 and Governors Ball in New York City on June 7.
NME awarded 'Paint My Bedroom Black' four stars upon its release, praising Humberstone's authentic sound: “Ultimately, ‘Paint My Bedroom Black’ finds the artist trying to do right by her loved ones and make sense of her own turbulent world, but it’s also a cue to listeners that things could go anywhere from here. In pursuit of an authentic sound, Humberstone proves that she’s not only inhabiting her own space – and beckoning listeners in – but also building out the walls.” In a past interview, she discussed navigating a male-dominated industry: “Things have started to change, but I used to assume it was a rarity to come across a woman in these spaces. It felt like a treat, even. I was so ambitious – and still am – but I had to ensure that I wasn’t letting external pressures impact the music I was making.”
