British rising star Holly Humberstone recently announced a release date of April 10, 2026, for her upcoming album “Cruel World.” For this new era, Humberstone is diving into a world of gothic feminine fantasy with inspiration taken from Victorian theatre, Nosferatu, Brothers Grimm and more. Ahead of the album’s release, she dropped three intriguing singles alongside deliciously developed gothic visuals.
“Die Happy”
“Die Happy,” the first single released for this album cycle, is an enchanting gothic love song. It depicts an all-consuming and reckless type of love: “And, baby, I want you in an IV drip.” It’s poetic with haunting vocals, expansive instrumentation and a feeling of surrender that seemingly floats through the air. The atmosphere she has created is especially intoxicating, with its intense intimacy and tenderness. “Die Happy” is a tragic yet romantic declaration of devotion: “To die with you is to, to die happy.”
The song also includes numerous gothic references that help build a cohesive visual, such as Bela Lugosi, spiders and ghosts. Humberstone credits “The Bloody Chamber” and “Dracula” as inspiration for this particular song.
The visualizer released alongside the song is just as intimate. The video opens with an ornamental frame around the words “So it starts with a girl,” “Die Happy” and “Holly Humberstone.” While the song carries on, the camera slowly zooms in on Humberstone as she sings with a longing expression gracing her face. She’s dressed in an all-white dress with a key around her neck.
Although eerie fog, flashing lights, a floating guitar and gusts of wind occasionally appear, the set itself is simplistic in nature. Humberstone appears to be sitting on a cloud surrounded by other clouds that range in different shades of white and grey.
“To Love Somebody”
The second single released, “To Love Somebody,” is a warm, vulnerable meditation on love, loss and the experience of it all. Both pain and pleasure co-exist in this song: “It all breaks down, it always does / It all works out, it always does.”
Although it’s emotionally raw, there’s a certain lightness to it; the realization that the ability to feel pain because you cared about something so much is transcendent. It offers a comforting and optimistic outlook on heartbreak: “To love somebody / To hurt somebody / To lose somebody / Is to know you’re only human, honey,” because “well, at least you got to love somebody.” It’s catharsis.
In conversation with Exclaim, she explains the inspiration behind the track.
“I wrote ‘To Love Somebody’ after watching someone close to me go through a brutal heartbreak,” she shared. “It’s better to have loved and lost, even when it sucks, because feeling everything is part of the human experience. Loving hard is a painful thing and there are two sides to love and they exist in the same space to me. They are all real, brutal and vulnerable experiences. This blue and green ball just keeps spinning, and you learn to ride things out.”
The single was released with a music video. It starts off with the same frame and text, but this time it’s around the song’s title, “To Love Somebody.” The video’s storyline follows Humberstone, a Nosferatu-inspired character and their relationship. Continuing with the gothic branding of this new album, the mood of the video is darker with shaded blue, black and grey sets and Humberstone dressed in an all-white lace dress.
“Cruel World”
“Cruel World,” the album’s third single and title track, is a dreamy, indie-pop narrative about a long-distance relationship. The upbeat nature of the song is accompanied by flourishes of fun sound effects and contradicting lyrics: “Wherever you are is my favorite place / And it’s a cruel world without you, baby.” Once again, there is a push and pull between feelings of euphoria and pain, alluding to an overarching theme for the album.
Humberstone shared the inspiration behind this track.
“‘Cruel World’ comes from the euphoria and pain of long-distance,” she said. “Your perception of the world around you can be completely distorted without that one person in it. There’s no fun in going out solo when the only place you want to be is wherever they are. Loving someone that much is always going to hurt a little. This is the dichotomy of pain and pleasure. Love is so painful at its core and this is the through line of my record. This is my favorite song I’ve ever written!”
“Cruel World” was also released with a concurrent music video, though this time it opens with the text “Cruel World” and a frame filled with solid gold. The video itself is much more intricate with dance numbers, several props and three different sets: a fairy-tale-like forest, a clock tower and a cemetery. Throughout the video, there are several references to familiar fairy tales and popular films, including the poison apple from “Snow White” and the snow scene with Winona Ryder from “Edward Scissorhands.”