Holly Humberstone - Paint My Bedroom Black

The title of her long-awaited debut full-length paints a telling picture of Holly Humberstone, an artist who properly emerged in the throes of home-bound isolation. That ‘Paint My Bedroom Black’ is her debut might come as a bit of a surprise – a technicality, perhaps, after 2022’s eleven-track ‘Can You Afford To Lose Me’ came billed as a ‘compilation’. Her melancholia clearly resonates, bolstered by a sense of nostalgia well beyond its years. And while she’s far too young to have been watching ‘Into Your Room’’s references to early ‘00s cult TV sensation The O.C. the first time round, it’s largely forgivable given how she perfectly encapsulates its zeitgeist. In fact, Holly is an expert in capturing a scene. The opening title track plays out in a transfixed darkened room, ‘Ghost Me’ effortlessly projects the chaotic night in question, and ‘Antichrist’ pours with visceral heartbreak. For somebody who spent much of their coming-of-age trapped inside, it’s a remarkable feat, and a thread she has followed across the last three years. And perhaps this is where the magic lies, at once escapist and heavily personal, it’s a dark, pop-perfect, melancholic fantasy.