Cruel World
Holly Humberstone · Indie Pop
Reviewed 2026-04-11
The Roast
“Holly Humberstone's second album Cruel World is the sound of someone who has been called 'promising' for four years finally deciding to stop being promising and start being good. The production is colder than her debut, the lyrics are sharper, and there is a track at position seven that will get stuck in your head for a week. She is growing up in public and it is starting to look like a career instead of a hype cycle.”
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The Bright Side
The collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers on track four is doing something genuinely interesting with harmony. The album commits to a consistent emotional palette without repeating itself, which is harder than most second albums make it look. Holly finally sounds like she trusts her own voice enough to stop apologising for it.
Hardest Sneer
“There is still one Sam Fender feature and two songs about a specific boy who specifically wronged her, which is starting to be a genre unto itself. At some point the breakup songs have to start feeling like choices instead of obligations.”
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