Cruel World by Holly Humberstone // Album Review

Cruel World beautifully depicts the complexities of what it means to be a young woman in the modern age, facing all of the expectations and pressures that inevitably surface at this point in life. As an artist, Holly Humberstone thrives in the most introspective and honest facets of who she is and the experiences she has gone through. Instrumentally, this album is so lush in its composition, drenched in synth‑pop elements that build upon such an interesting blend of influences. The shimmering, dark fairytale aesthetics are also so central to the entirety of this album as well.

As an entire project, Cruel World really does stand among so many of the best alt‑pop records of the past decade, evoking the feelings of Melodrama by Lorde or Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers in its distinct world‑building and emotional intensity. Coincidentally, all three albums are also these artists' sophomore releases, which feels fitting, as each one captures the distinct moment they stepped deeper into their own voice and expanded the musical universe they introduced on their respective debuts. The 1975 also stands out as a clear reference point, particularly albums like Notes on a Conditional Form and Being Funny in a Foreign Language.

This album lives in all the contradictions of being in your 20s - how fast everything changes, how the feelings you thought would last forever will always eventually dissolve, and how heartbreak and happiness exist in equal measure. All of it is fleeting, and all of it becomes part of life and what it takes to find yourself, and to find love, in this cruel world.

When looking back on the ways she has changed through the years, especially since her debut album in 2023, Paint My Bedroom Black, and a string of EPs before that, this album focuses on showcasing Holly's newfound confidence as a woman and an artist. Much of Cruel World is built on the idea that to figure out who you are, you sometimes have to return to the beginning and reconnect with the things that shaped you as a child. For Holly, that meant revisiting her 11‑year‑old self, when having a career in music still felt like a distant dream. In doing so, she went back to her childhood home and went through all of the things she loved at that time in her life - especially the Brothers Grimm fairytales and movies that shaped her early years.

In an interview with InStyle, Holly opened up about how these early influences shaped both the album's writing and visual identity. "I love how old movies have a crusty feel to them and super saturated colors-there's something magical and otherworldly, which inspired a lot of the visuals," she said. "Inspiration for the writing came from navigating the world as a young girl, and my first experience of being in love. I realized love is very painful at its core; what makes it so powerful is that you can't separate the extreme good from the extreme bad. It's a similar emotion to nostalgia: so strong, but so bittersweet."

Cruel World is also brought to life by so many sharp, intimate commentaries on femininity, which is brought forward by the universal feelings that a woman faces especially in her 20s. While everything is rooted in her own personal experiences, it is also very reflective of the experiences so many go through.

It begins with the short instrumental track aptly titled "So It Starts...", which is a grand, theatrical opening that sets the tone for the rest of the album. Sonically, it feels reminiscent of the instrumental introduction on The 1975's "If You're Too Shy (Let Me Know)" or even Phoebe Bridgers' opening track from Punisher titled "DVD Menu". From there, the album moves into "Make It All Better", which is such a sweet song full of sentimental, romantic musings about growing old with her partner and imagining all of the moments she wants to share throughout their lives together. "I wanna be old and gross with you, matching tracksuits on a treadmill, stretchy skin, green tattoos, no regrets, I'll fade out with you," she sings on the second verse. There is a glitchy digital quality to the song that is simultaneously complimented by the grand traditionality of the other surrounding instrumentals.

"To Love Somebody" feels like the heart of the album in so many ways. It is a song rooted in heartbreak, but it approaches the feeling from a completely different angle than a typical breakup track. Instead of framing sensitivity and feeling all-encompassing deep emotions as weaknesses, Holly instead writes from the place of these being the distinct traits that make us human. The bittersweet message is that the moments in life that leave you feeling the most exposed and emotionally vulnerable ultimately allow us to gain clarity and experience life in the fullest sense of the word.

"They tell you that you feel too much, euphoria right down to the crush, it all breaks down, it always does, it all works out, it always does," Holly sings in the first pre-chorus. "And the shit they say in the songs you love, the greatest hits and the deepest cuts, it all breaks down, it always does, it all works out, it always does". This song carries the age old message that it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. "To love somebody, to hurt somebody, to lose somebody, is to know you're only human, honey" she sings in the chorus. Ultimately, "To Love Somebody" is a celebration of the fact that you were able to love someone or something so deeply that their absence leaves a mark on your life, rather than a lament. She closes the chorus with the poignant reminder that, "Well, at least you got to love somebody".

The album's title track similarly feels rooted in the overwhelming rush of feeling emotions so deeply, especially when in love. "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," Holly said in an interview with Apple Music. "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."

It is truly such a perfect synth‑pop song, one that feels very reminiscent of "Homemade Dynamite" by Lorde sonically, but are also tied by their shared feelings of all‑encompassing, electric, dizzying emotion. "Let's catch a movie and get caught in the rain, wherever you are is my favorite place, she sings in the chorus. "And it's a cruel world without you, baby".

The way Holly, as a songwriter, is able to capture emotion with such vivid detail, through such a poetic and often sort of gothic lens, feels so true to who she is artistically and to all of the facets of herself that she reveals through her work. "Die Happy" best depicts those qualities, which is a song built upon the atmospheric and romantic scene she paints. It is all brought to life with the most gorgeous vocal harmonies and give it such a weightless feeling to the song. "There's something about you, so strange and beautiful, the language that you talk," she sings in the pre‑chorus, which is a line that beautifully depicts the enchantment that is at the center of this song's narrative. "I wrote 'Die Happy' thinking about a fairytale at night, somewhere between driving fast with the windows down and wandering through a crumbling old house," Holly said in an interview with Uproxx. "I took inspiration from The Bloody Chamber and Dracula and I wanted to show the feeling of throwing yourself into love fully and recklessly. There is danger in love."

"Die Happy" is then contrasted, in all of its love and darkness, with the light and airy "White Noise". Sonically, it feels inspired by the work of artists like Kate Bush and The Cure and overall could be pulled straight out of an 80's rom-com movie montage. In terms of the more modern influences she is channeling on this song, "Supercut" by Lorde and "After Midnight" by Chappell Roan stand out as prime examples of pop tracks that share the same kind of bright, nostalgic sound of "White Nosie". Speaking of "Supercut", the narratives also feel very closely linked as well, as Holly writes from the perspective of looking back on a memory reel of her with her ex and wanting to dissociate from the weight of all the emotions attached to that point of her life. "Blue Dream" later in the album similarly is such a dreamy snapshot of a specific moment in time and yearning to be in love again.

"So play a sad song, DJ, I just wanna sway tonight, since I lost my baby, all I wanna do is cry, cry, cry, cry," she sings in the chorus of "White Noise". "I let my tears hit the floor, time to get real, girl, you're not in his arms anymore". This is a prime example of a dance floor confessional, one that is brutally honest and drenched in cinematic qualities.

She wrote this song, along with a few others from Cruel World, in Nashville. "I fully immersed myself in the culture and you can hear that," she told Apple Music of her time there. Leaving London and recording part of the album in Tennessee gives this album a distinct shift in the influences she draws from through the duration of the music she worked on there, especially being someone who isn't from America and is largely experiencing the cultural shift in a more immersive way than she maybe has in the past.

As a result, there is a subtle Americana, country-leaning vibe women through many of these songs. "Red Chevy" channels that influence in a softer, more understated way, but she goes full-on with "Drunk Dialing" - which is a cheeky, Kacey Musgraves inspired moment. It's one of the most playful moments on the album, where she leans into the theatricality of heartbreak in the pursuit of trying to move on. She fully allows her humor to shine through on this song, especially in the opening verse as she sings, "I can put my lipstick on and blow kisses at creepy dudes, I'm workin' on my impression of someone who barely ever misses you, I'm gonna shake my non-existent ass to this shitty song".

With the lighter moments come some of the most introspective looks into Holly's mind and experiences through her life. These tracks offer such heartfelt insight into who she is becoming and what she's learning along the way. One of the only true ballads of Cruel World comes on "Peachy," which is a coming-of-age, diaristic look at her life and the growing pains of being a young adult. "God knows I'm 24, I'm still a baby," she sings in the chorus in a moment of self-awareness. This song is also largely an admission of her own faults at the same time, as she navigates who she is becoming. The soft, lyrical intimacy feels connective to an artist like Gracie Abrams' writing style as well.

The real crux of the album comes on "Lucy," named after one of her sisters. It's a beautiful depiction of femininity and a love letter to her family and the women in her life that shaped her and whom she has cited as a main source of inspiration throughout the entirety of Cruel World. Although it was written specifically for her sisters, it truly is for anyone who needs to hear the message that lies within this song and who sees a bit of themselves within the stories she tells.

"Being a young woman in the modern world is strange," is a lyric that particularly stands out as the defining thesis of this entire record, as Holly explores exactly the ways in which that sentiment is so true for so many. Through all of the uncertainties and pressures one may face in their lives, she shifts the perspective toward hope in the chorus with the line, "Behind every rain cloud, there is a promise that flowers will grow."

"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," she said in an interview with Apple Music. "Lucy" is a song rooted in the belief that this too shall pass, and that there is something brighter just on the other side of hardship, because "blue is just a color anyway."

"Beauty Pageant" closes the record, which is another song deeply inspired by her experiences growing up with three sisters, going to all all-girls school, and then stepping into the music industry at a young age. This song touches on the pressures and objectification that women face, and feeling the need to conform to a certain standard from a young age.

"So it starts with a girl, in a bar, and she's singing from the heart, glitter curtains, sticky floors, she would die for the applause," she sings in the opening verse. Holly vividly describes the life of a showgirl; a star who lives for the attention, applause and theatrics this life can bring, but also the darker sides of it. With all of the shimmering, beautiful parts of it, Holly also opens up about the ways in which she can be left feeling jaded and overwhelmed by the pressures and fleeting nature of it all too. These feelings can coexist and she perfectly captures that contradiction, especially in the moments she admits that she's too far out of her element. "Pull on my strings and wind me up, I'll be your favorite, till I'm not," she sings in the second verse. "Like a song that you forgot".

"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," Holly said in an interview with Apple Music. "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."

Above all, there's a message to herself - and to everyone listening - that even if everything is moving so fast, you shouldn't get so caught up in your own head that you forget to enjoy it too. She repeatedly sings in the chorus and in the final lines of the song, "The stage is yours, don't forget to have a ball, one day, I'll make you love me, come on and make me pretty".