Holly Humberstone - 'Antichrist' & 'Room Service'
Holly Humberstone releases introspective singles Antichrist and Room Service, along with debut album announcement
Indie-pop sensation Holly Humberstone is back with Antichrist and Room Service, and has finally announced her long awaited debut record, Paint My Bedroom Black, which will be arriving on 13 October.
Humberstone appeared at Glastonbury in 2019, performing on the BBC Introducing stage before she even had a single out. Her debut single Deep End was released in January 2020, described as a song for her sister. It was followed by singles Falling Asleep at the Wheel and Overkill, and by then she had already gained a substantial fanbase. Her debut EP Falling Asleep at the Wheel arrived in August 2020, her second EP The Walls Are Way Too Thin releasing in November 2021, and a compilation of singles and popular tracks from the EPs, Can You Afford To Lose Me? In October 2022.
After touring with Olivia Rodrigo and Girl in Red, Humberstone has acuminated a large fanbase, and proved herself to be one of the most exciting voices in alternative-pop, and these new songs back that up.
Antichrist is a shimmering slice of electro-pop that is as smooth and polished as a diamond. “Am I the antichrist? How do I sleep at night?” She opens the song, straight to the point. The production on this track is really fantastic, with pounding drumbeats and swirls of synths. It’s a melodic, sprawling track, filled with sadness, yet doesn’t really make the listener feel too sad, more empathetic. Speaking on the writing of the song, Humberstone said: “Antichrist is about a breakup I went through a couple of years ago. I genuinely cared about this person and wanted so badly to make it work, but I knew something wasn’t right and my heart wasn’t in it. I knew that I was inevitably going to have to hurt the person I wanted so much to love. At the time I wrote the song, I remember feeling like I was constantly letting those around me down. I basically felt like the worst person in the world.”
It's a deep cut of a song, and a perfect lead single. “Cause I gave you bad love, only/Gave you bad love only” She sings in her crystal-clear voice, goosebump-inducing.
Room Service could not be any more different from Antichrist, sonically. It’s lead by an acoustic guitar and little else. Even though it’s sparse, it doesn’t feel short of anything. “I am burying the things that hurt you/I’m digging holes in the garden, babe” she sings softly. It’s a warm and gentle song, addressed to the people she cares about most. Holly said on the making of it: “I wrote Room Service a little while ago when I’d just started touring full time. I was finding myself constantly stressed out and although I was having fun, I was really missing home and my friends. I felt like I was watching them live out their lives from a phone screen, like I was being left behind. There was this swelling feeling that I was growing apart from that world that I was missing so badly, and I just didn’t want to be forgotten.”
If these singles are anything to go by, Paint My Bedroom Black is going to be even more impressive than her previous work.
Words by Beth Simms
