Holly Humberstone Releases New Album “Cruel World”
British singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone released her sophomore album “Cruel World” on April 10, 2026 via Polydor Records.
It is her first album since the 2023 debut album “Paint My Bedroom Black”.
The album comprises 12 tracks, written and recorded with producer Rob Milton after touring in support of her debut album.
Following the tour, she reconnected with herself during recording and while clearing out her family home, with the album exploring themes of new love, heartache, and growing up in the modern world.
She told Apple Music, “So much of my identity is rooted there (her family home). I found all of my old stuff and was like, 'Oh wait, this is actually me.' I feel like I just had forgotten so much about myself.”
She continued, “I want to provide a safe, otherworldly space where people can get lost. My own world where all of this music and all of these stories can exist. Music for me is such an escape from the realities of life, which these days are scary, harsh, and brutal.”
Holly Humberstone said of the album, “I have learnt so much about myself through making this album - I'm so lucky I get to make things with incredibly talented and inspiring friends & family and we've all poured so much love into it and I think we've made something really beautiful.”
She continued, “This album encapsulates two years of loving, learning, yearning, growing up, embracing changes and navigating being a young woman in the modern world. I feel so privileged to have been able to grow and learn so much about myself and those closest to me through its creation.”
She added, “Rob Milton I hope we get to write together forever n ever because it's my favourite thing in the world and you are simply the best. Thank you also to the incredible writers and musicians who have helped to make this music feel so personal and special. My big sister Eleri Humberstone and I began dreaming up this creative universe whilst the album was still being written. We brought our ideas to earth angel and visionary Silken Weinberg who brought our cruel world to life. It's infused with references from our childhood and watching it all back feels beautiful and surreal. My sisters give me so much strength and confidence and everything I do is to make them proud really.”
Holly Humberstone explained track by track for the album via Apple Music.
“So It Starts...” “I was a junior associate at The Royal Ballet School when I was about eight. My first ever experience of being on stage was in the Royal Opera House and it was crazy. Being in a theater is such a gorgeous, sensory experience and the sound of the orchestra tuning up is the best sound in the world to me. I wanted this to feel like you're sitting down to watch a play or a ballet or see a gig. You're taking your seats and the show's about to begin.”
“Make It All Better” “This was the quickest song to write on the album. It felt natural and sort of fell out. At the time I was fresh into a new relationship. It's about wanting to protect and nurture something special, while also romanticizing it and dreaming of what the future might hold.”
“To Love Somebody” “I wrote this after somebody really close to me went through a devastating heartbreak. When you're in the depths of that, you can't see the silver lining-that this could be a positive thing for you and that this is growth. I read the situation as, 'You're so down bad, but the grief you're feeling is a measure of the love that you experienced.' I wanted to give her an affirmation that this is only one tiny blip in the story-this blue and green ball just keeps spinning and you have so much more waiting for you.”
“Cruel World” “It's about a long-distance relationship and how your whole perception of the world around you can look so different when that one person is missing. We were picturing being in a club where all these couples around you are making out-it just reminds you how alone you are. This song is also cheeky and fun. It's the euphoric feeling that comes with being in love, matched with some darker-toned lyrics.”
“Die Happy” “I feel like this is the most cinematic, visual song on the record. It was around Halloween when we wrote this-I feel like Halloween, for some reason, has always been assigned to me. I love spooky things, like we reference Bela Lugosi, who was in the original Dracula film, and I'm a huge fan of Lana Del Rey, who does this kind of spooky, ethereal, kind of feminine, ghostly [thing]. We were just having fun with it. I wanted to write a song for people who love so hard that it kind of scares them at times. There's a danger and darkness in love. It's just a spooky love story for any goth couples out there.”
“White Noise” “I felt like I needed a change of scenery so we went to Nashville. I fully immersed myself in the culture and you can hear that. This is a straight-down-the-line, shameless pop song with little ripples of country music running through it. And it's just a drunk girl in a club singing along to whatever the DJ's playing-we've al been there. We [Milton, Jon Green, and Nashville-based songwriter Mikky Ekko] were referencing Post Malone, Miley Cyrus, The Weeknd, and, of course, Kacey Musgraves.”
“Lucy” “This song is a lullaby for Lucy, but also for myself. I felt like I needed to hear it. It's a hug in a song: you've got this, you're on the right track. It's for any young girl who doesn't really know where they fit in in a world that isn't really shaped for us. I don't think that feeling ever goes away, it's just something that you learn to make peace with.”
“Red Chevy” “I did my last show of 2024 and had been in America for a long time. I came home, went straight into the studio, and wrote this. It was before I knew what the album was or how I wanted it to sound, just a first stab in the dark. To me, this feels like the bridge between Paint My Bedroom Black and Cruel World. It's also a bit of cheeky, sexy song. It was the first time I felt I could express that side of myself-I felt empowered and ready.”
Drunk Dialling” “This is just a bit of fun. We've all been in the situation where you're desperate for someone's attention and they just couldn't give less of a fuck about you. This one sounds like the concoction of horny and sad and also unrequited love-and I feel like this is the one where I'm just taking the piss out of myself as much as possible.”
“Peachy” “For me, no album is complete without a deconstructed piano ballad. It's about being emotionally responsible for somebody else's feelings-I personally don't feel responsible enough as a person to be holding that much of somebody's heart. This song feels like the follow-up to my song 'Friendly Fire'.”
“Blue Dream” “This was never meant to be anything too serious. The inspiration behind the song is quite simple: my boyfriend was in LA working on an album and was smoking Blue Dream. It's about how love can feel psychedelic. Blue is such an evocative color for me: It's peace and love and nature, but it's also a sad color. And the two things existing in the same space felt like such a big theme of the album.”
“Beauty Pageant” “It sounds like the curtains closing and going into my dressing room at the end of a show, taking all my makeup off and sitting with myself in the silence after everybody's left. I wanted to talk about my experience of being a woman-and how I feel like prettiness and the stamina to keep going, to show up and have a smile on your face, and to deliver and perform is currency for all of us-no matter what what line of work we're in. I've been pitted against my female friends and my sisters and I had such an issue when I started releasing music with the way I viewed other female artists. It's kind of embarrassing to admit that, but our society is built so that we're pitted against each other. This song is about the juxtaposition between how we present ourselves on stage or online versus behind closed doors. And the actual struggle to stay relevant and to stay pretty and to stay young.”
