{"id":1888069,"date":"2026-04-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1888069"},"modified":"2026-04-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:00:00","slug":"wonderland-138","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1888069","title":{"rendered":"Wonderland"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\tWonderland<\/span>
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\n\t\t\tDOWN THE RABBIT HOLE AND INTO HOLLY\u2019S FAIRYTALE<\/span>
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Holly Humberstone is all grown up. With the release of her sophomore album, Cruel World<\/em>, the British pop princess is the protagonist of her own fairytale.\u00a0<\/h3>\n
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All photography by Charlotte Alex<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

When Lewis Carroll penned the sing-song, \u201cThe Queen of Hearts \/ She made some tarts \/ All on a Summer\u2019s day, \/ The Knave of Hearts \/ He stole those tarts \/ And took them quite away\u201d<\/em> in Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland <\/em>(1894), he interrogated one central idea: that although fairytales can<\/em> be sunshine and rainbows, often, all is not as it seems. As with most great stories, you read it a few times, catch the whispers in between the lines, and realise there\u2019s so much left to be unravelled. But sometimes, to get to the magic, you\u2019ve got to make your wishes and go on quite an adventure. As is the case for pop princess Holly Humberstone with her second studio album, Cruel World,<\/em> released on 10th April via Polydor Records.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Down this 12-track rabbit hole, she embraces the ebb and flow that comes with getting lost in her own fairytale. It feels hypnotic and otherworldly, oxymoronic yet cathartic \u2013 smells like girlhood. That\u2019s no doubt thanks to swirling synths that bubble under crescendo-ing chords and melodies that make you want to hop, skip and jump through tulip fields lit by spring sun \u2013 or lie in them under a glowing moon. At a time when whimsy seems to be the buzzword, Holly has reached the peak of it with this Cruel World<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On this record, it\u2019s clear that she spent some time on the road with the<\/em> pop princesses. Opening for Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo, that flair for clever, witty lyrics \u2013 which she\u2019s always been known for \u2013 now echo them in their catchiness, sarcasm and sugar-dusted punch. In the 26-year-old\u2019s fantasy, she closely traces the contours of her inner world. One that glistens with yearning and youthful charm: \u201cCan we get an ice cream on Telegraph Hill?\u201d she dreams on \u201cBlue Dream\u201d. Elsewhere, it cuts with earnest angst: \u201cYou wanna act your shoe size, not your age,\u201d she digs on the best-friend inspired \u201cLucy\u201d. But this is what Holly Humberstone is loved most for.<\/p>\n

Release week was a whirlwind. To commemorate the release of Cruel World<\/em>, she shared a music video for the record\u2019s standout closing offering, \u201cBeauty Pageant\u201d. Visually, she sparkles under the spotlight and twinkles in a jewel-embellished satin corset, where she insists: \u201cOne day I\u2019ll make you love me \/ Come on and make me pretty.\u201d Here, she grapples with the pressures that come with being a woman in music, and the expectations that are forced upon her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before the single was out in the world, she took over Farringdon\u2019s Charterhouse Square on a brisk Tuesday evening to perform it exclusively for top fans and listeners, courtesy of Spotify UK. On a lilac stage framed by pink cherry blossom trees, Holly and her band performed a few of the tracks from the new album, as well as some older fan favourites. As she took to the stage for soundcheck in a grey knitted dress, lavender shimmer painted across her eyelids, it was exactly like listening to the record. Soon after, she added another stop on this unofficial mini tour: flying over to California\u2019s Palm Springs for her second-ever Coachella.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With that moment in hand, at some point in the fairytale, you come to the end of the cliff, the trail, the story, and Holly embraces the melancholy and finality of that on this record. She welcomes the fall \u2013 not just of love, but a fall from \u2018grace\u2019, from beauty, from friendship, and anything that can shatter the dreamstate that comes with living in your personalised la la land. Once the glimmer fades and the glitter is swept away, what\u2019s left? Well, the British singer-songwriter goes beneath the surface with this record\u2026and somehow by doing so, she\u2019s created a bubble you don\u2019t want to burst.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Cruel World<\/em>, the stage is Holly\u2019s, and as Wonderland<\/em> sits with her two hours before her exclusive Spotify performance, she provides an important reminder: \u201cDon\u2019t forget to have a ball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watch \u201cBeauty Pageant\u201d\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

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Read the exclusive interview\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

What would you say this album says about where you are now, and what you\u2019ve learned about yourself through making this album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve learned so much through the writing and creation process, in so many ways. When I came off of the [Eras] tour\u2026for context, since 2020 \/ the end of lockdown, I was pretty much on tour the whole time and have been swept up in this crazy, amazing whirlwind of touring. The industry itself is a very overstimulating place to exist in, and whilst I\u2019ve been doing that also, it hasn\u2019t left me enough time \u2013 or a lot of time \u2013 to be a human being as well, and learn about myself. Coming off tour in September, it was the first time I\u2019d had an extended period of time at home in London to figure out who I am as a person, outside of being an artist, which was all I knew for a long time. For that reason, the project represents me so much, in a fuller way, than anything has before that I\u2019ve released. I\u2019ve had time to think about it and make something that represents me, right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve spoken about how this was inspired by reflecting on your childhood and making a physical transition away from that \u2018safe space\u2019, as well as simply growing up. Can you talk more about how that influenced the storytelling on <\/strong>Cruel World<\/em><\/strong>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been going through quite a lot of changes in my personal life, as well as being a young person in the world, and growing up. I\u2019ve moved out of my childhood home, which is a big thing to me, because that place is my anchor. Getting to go back and spend proper time there, at my childhood home, in my childhood bedroom, going through everything that I\u2019ve ever owned, and rediscovering old, lost, forgotten items that defined me, was a lovely, introspective time. I wouldn\u2019t have got that if I hadn\u2019t been allowed so much time to create, write and grow as a person. One of the main themes of the album is realising that love is this really nuanced thing. It\u2019s not as straightforward as what we\u2019re taught it is, as kids, and realising that it\u2019s actually extremely painful. A lot of the strong things we feel as humans, like nostalgia \u2013 it\u2019s one of those emotions that feels so powerful, because you have that mix of the good and the bad, to the extremes, and you can\u2019t really separate them from each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is there anything either on the creative or technical side of your creative process that you feel has shifted from post-lockdown, post-first album, into this one?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s natural for art, in whatever form, to change with the person who\u2019s making it. The first couple of songs that I released on my first EP, I wrote when I was 16, 17, so I\u2019m a very different person. Even my first album, it was called Paint My Bedroom Black<\/em>, and I wrote a lot of those songs four or five years ago now. Being a young person in the world, you feel like a different person every day. \u2018Who am I today?\u2019, \u2018Which person am I gonna be today?\u2019, \u2018What am I gonna discover about myself?\u2019 which is kind of fun. Also, I\u2019ve been in the music industry for a little while now\u2026a long time, actually.<\/p>\n

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Almost a decade, right? If not that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, about that. I feel like there\u2019s a confidence, maybe, in the new music. Listening now, on reflection, I have only just felt like I have the power to be the boss of my project, and to call the shots a bit more. I think it comes with being a woman in the industry, unfortunately. We don\u2019t really get taken seriously and being listened to [means] we have to be 10 times louder. I\u2019ve experienced that firsthand with stuff internally, on my team, and on a bigger scale as well \u2013 and just being a person in the world. This time, I\u2019ve been able to craft my own team and step up and take a bit of agency. And [say] no, that doesn\u2019t represent me, that doesn\u2019t feel like it fits on this album, this is what feels like me. Creatively, I\u2019ve worked with my big sister [Eleri] on so much of the creative. It\u2019s been so fun dreaming it all up with her on Pinterest for months, and then seeing it all come to life.<\/p>\n

The album title, <\/strong>Cruel World<\/em><\/strong>, feels like a fitting one for the time we\u2019re in, but also when you listen to it lyrically, and also, with your explanation, it does perfectly encapsulate that inner world, especially as a young woman. When did you know this was your title?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For me, and I think for most people who love music, music feels like the only space in the world that you can go to to fully escape. To romanticise your life, transport yourself somewhere else, be somebody else for a minute, or look at your life through somebody else\u2019s perspective. Music unites all of us in a way that you can\u2019t really explain \u2013 it\u2019s just the most human thing that I\u2019ve found I can go to with whatever I need. As you\u2019ve said, the world feels like the most terrifying place right now, and it feels overstimulating. It\u2019s hard to get on with [life]. Wanting to connect with real humans and real people \u2013 to escape \u2013 that\u2019s what this album was to me. I was halfway through the writing process, and I\u2019d written a bunch of songs that I really loved \u2013 \u201cTo Love Somebody\u201d, \u201cDie Happy\u201d and \u201cMake It All Better\u201d. \u201cRed Chevy\u201d was the first song that I wrote when I came back off tour, which was like, \u2018Who am I now that I can do whatever I want?\u2019 That was the starting place. I knew I loved it, but I was like, \u2018What does it mean?\u2019, \u2018How do these songs all fit together?\u2019 Then I wrote \u201cCruel World\u201d and everything just slotted into place, sonically and lyrically. It brought everything into the same space and gave me the blueprint to finish writing the album. The title, Cruel World<\/em>, means a lot to me right now, and I hope it can be that for other people. It also just unlocked all of this visual world that my sister and I got really excited to make; this fantasy fairytale, childhood storybook world.<\/p>\n

Are there any songs on the record that feel the most <\/strong>Cruel World<\/em><\/strong>?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are a lot of songs on the album, like \u201cLucy\u201d, for example, that are at the core, because it\u2019s about being a young woman in the modern world, which is very strange and overstimulating. It\u2019s fair enough to feel confused and overwhelmed by the world outside, because I think we live in really fucking scary times, to say the least. To not even scratch the surface. \u201cLucy\u201d is a song that feels really good for me to listen to, to remember that it\u2019s okay to be overwhelmed and confused and not know how to handle things. We\u2019re learning, we\u2019re growing, and we\u2019re on the right track. Ultimately, we\u2019re in this altogether.<\/p>\n

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Courtesy of Spotify UK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Courtesy of Spotify UK<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

You mentioned working with your sister Eleri on the visual side and bringing this fairytale to life, in a modern-day sense. You get to go deeper into those nuances, stories and the complexities of being a young woman existing now. What are some of your favourite fairytales, and which of them influenced the visual direction of the album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have so many. I\u2019m drawn to the same fairytales as a lot of people are; Alice in Wonderland<\/em> \u2013 I used to dream about finding a rabbit hole, and hoping that I\u2019d fall down one \u2013 Wizard of Oz<\/em>, equally. I feel like being a girl is playing princess. Getting so lost in stories and fairytales as a kid was all I did. I grew up with three sisters, which is the biggest gift \u2013 the<\/em> best. A built-in friendship group for life. Growing up, my parents both worked for the NHS, and they were super busy and had real, proper helping people jobs, and all I remember is having so much space to play, be creative and make up stories. I also used to really love to dance; I did ballet, and for a while, that was all I wanted to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is there a \u2018magic\u2019 moment from your childhood that particularly stands out when you think of experiencing fairytales?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One Christmas, I had this really magical formative experience where my mum took me to a ballet, and it\u2019s such a sensory treat for a kid to go and watch a ballet, because it\u2019s gorgeous and velvety. It was so stunning. The architecture, the pretty engravings everywhere, even down to the smell of old lady perfume in the theatre, and the sound of the orchestra tuning up, the curtains opening, and this paper world is revealed. I just remember coming out of that experience, after fully being sucked into the world for like two hours, and thinking that was life-changing and magic, to be honest. Storytelling is, again, an amazing way to escape and go into a different realm for a little while in order to cope with real life, whatever\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

And did delving deeper into these fairytales \u2013 both lived and based on stories \u2013 unpack any further inspiration or revelation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

These stories are all building rooms and coming-of-age stories of a heroine going into a different world to cope with changes and growing up in the confusing real world, as a form of protection. Figuring out who you are and where you fit in amongst it all \u2013 and adults should be able to do that too. Why should we stop when we\u2019re children? It\u2019s important. It feels really good to escape, to go somewhere else and remove yourself from the real world for a minute.<\/p>\n

The last song on the album, \u201cBeauty Pageant\u201d, is you as a showgirl in your own right, of your own accord. The single looks at navigating or grappling with being an artist and all of the external expectations being thrown at you. Why was it important to tell this story on the album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Women are so core to my life. Central. I\u2019m so lucky to have such amazing women to lean on, to guide each other, through being a young adult. I think I would be a completely different person without my girlies. I\u2019ve always been in writing rooms full of dudes, so I never felt it was the right time to bring this up, or whether people would understand, because why would they be able to relate? The people that I was writing this song with, I\u2019ve known them for a long time, and I\u2019ve been collaborating with them for years, and they\u2019ve seen me go through lots of different phases, and I felt like it was [right]. We had the piano first, and it felt like it fit with the sound of the song. I remember one of the items that I found at home was this music box that I used to keep all my jewellery in. It had come off its hinge, but the ballerina was still in there, and I wound it up, and she still spun, and the noise that came out of the music box felt like such a flashback, That\u2019s So Raven<\/em> moment \u2013 back into being an eight-year-old. Then, I was a bit unzipped. This is my experience of being a woman who puts herself out there for everybody to just judge. Equally, it\u2019s about my experience and the juxtaposition of how I\u2019m presenting myself on stage and how other people might view me, versus what it\u2019s like when everybody\u2019s left the theatre, and I\u2019m on my own in my dressing room, taking my makeup off. Things feel very different without that kind of validation being fed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watch \u201cBeauty Pageant\u201d\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

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Was there a particular moment that sparked this for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s about my experience, but also, it\u2019s super universal. Everybody, with social media, has an audience. Checking likes and checking follows, basing all of their self-worth \u2013 I know I do \u2013 on the stuff that I post and being pretty and showing up with a smile on your face and doing the best that you can to deliver is currency \u2013 and it\u2019s not the same rules for dudes. Unfortunately, it really isn\u2019t. The amount of time I spend every single morning getting ready, they don\u2019t have to do that. I see so many of my male peers in the music industry \u2013 no hate \u2013 and they are not giving a second thought to the jeans and hoodie that they\u2019re throwing on. Also, a sick vibe, but it\u2019s not the same. Standards are so different. It\u2019s a thing for everybody; seeking validation from external sources is kind of all we\u2019ve got, and that\u2019s where we place our self-worth. Sometimes I\u2019m like, \u2018Am I a sellable product?\u2019<\/p>\n

With all of this in mind, how did you settle on it being the last track?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I feel like it (\u201cBeauty Pageant\u201d) has normalised talking and thinking about it. I wanted it to close the album, because it\u2019s my most vulnerable [song]. A lot of this stuff is kind of embarrassing to admit, but I know I can\u2019t be the only one feeling like this. I\u2019ve been so lucky to be surrounded by so many amazing girls my entire life, and I\u2019ve always felt this external pressure that there\u2019s only room for one to win or to succeed. It\u2019s just bullshit. It\u2019s clear to see that women are running all the good parts of the world, and the music industry is an amazing women-led space right now. There are so many inspiring female artists that I really admire and come to, and I\u2019m so inspired by \u2013 and that\u2019s, I think, how it should be. But it took me a long time to unlearn a lot of the toxic thought processes towards other women that I\u2019d been taught at school to make us do better, or whatever. It\u2019s a learning curve for sure, but I also don\u2019t have all the answers on it. This is my take on what it feels like, right now.<\/p>\n

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After writing all of the songs, when did you feel like the project was complete?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I wrote \u201cWhite Noise\u201d. It was the last song to be written \u2013 I think the second last song was \u201cBeauty Pageant\u201d actually \u2013 and then I felt like I needed a change of scenery because, like a lot of creatives, I\u2019m very affected by my physical surroundings. So, I went to Nashville for two weeks and did a lot of fun yeehaw shit, which was very strange, but one of the moments I remember was writing \u201cWhite Noise\u201d and there being no pressure. I\u2019ve kind of finished the album and said a lot of what I wanted to say \u2013 let\u2019s just have some fun, make a pop song and see what happens, and we did. Then, because we were in Nashville, it had ripples of country throughout it, which is an area I\u2019ve never really explored. Coming home, I was really happy with how everything felt cohesive. It\u2019s also important to draw the line at some point \u2013 I could just keep writing forever and ever and ever. It\u2019s always hard to feel like it\u2019s ever completely finished, but that\u2019s the beauty of getting to make stuff. To share it, this is a time capsule of what\u2019s been going on in the last year and a half, and who knows what the next chapter will sound and look like.<\/p>\n

Listen to Cruel World\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

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Words<\/strong> \u2013 Aswan Magumbe<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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Feature Interview<\/a><\/div>\n
Music<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\n\t\t\t\tDid Kiko Kostadinov just release a teen musical?<\/span> <\/span><\/a>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wonderland DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE AND INTO HOLLY\u2019S FAIRYTALE Holly Humberstone is all grown up. With the release of her sophomore album, Cruel World, the British pop princess is the protagonist of her own fairytale.\u00a0 All photography by Charlotte Alex When Lewis Carroll penned the sing-song, \u201cThe Queen of Hearts \/ She made some tarts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,257],"class_list":["post-1888069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-wonderlandmagazine-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1888069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888069\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1888069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1888069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1888069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}