There’s a distinctive feeling that ties all of Holly Humberstone’s dark, brooding songs together. Since the release of her debut single ‘Deep End’ in January 2020, the Grantham-born artist’s candid, often anguished portraits of her personal life – from losing momentum in a relationship (‘Falling Asleep At The Wheel’) to London flatshares (‘The Walls Are Way Too Thin’) – have been aptly matched to artwork awash with shades of red, black and purple. “My favourite artists create work that magics up an entirely new universe,” she said recently. “That’s what I want to do with my album and live shows.”
While Humberstone’s debut album has a decidedly on-brand title – ‘Paint My Bedroom Black’ – this track actually signals a much more optimistic outlook. “Now I’m pulling out of your driveway / Finally I’m living, not surviving,” she proclaims atop a liberating guitar riff. Still, it’s an imperfect rebirth – a coming-of-age in which Humberstone is still wrestling with all the conflicting sides of herself: the extrovert and the introvert; the Gen Z pop star and the chronic doom-scroller who can’t text her friends back.
This knotty conflict looms large on tracks like the distorted ‘Antichrist’, on which Humberstone bluntly asks herself: “Am I the Antichrist? / How do I sleep at night?” On the lush, indie-pop leaning ‘Lauren’, she apologises to a friend for being absent, while the acoustic, pared-back ‘Room Service’ finds her longing for someone to ease the loneliness of touring.
The confessional ‘Into Your Room’, meanwhile, sees Humberstone admit to her relationship flaws while also giving herself permission to fall hard. “Without you my soul is eternally doomed / You’re the centre of the universe, my sorry ass revolves around you,” she sings over plump synths, pairing unabashed romanticism with deadpan self-deprecation. These cinematic vignettes make for the album’s most intoxicating moments, whether it’s falling in love on the woozy slow dance ‘Kissing In Swimming Pools’, or two lovers looking at the same sky on the D4vd collaboration ‘Superbloodmoon’.
Alongside her piercing lyrics, Humberstone’s debut LP is all the richer because she steps out of her sonic comfort zone. Surprises arise on the layered, Bon Iver-esque ‘Baby Blues’, and brilliant ‘Flatlining’, which temporarily turns into a shifty electronic banger. 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.
