“My sorry ass revolves around you,” laments Holly Humberstone on “Into Your Room”, the latest single from her tear-stained debut album, Paint My Bedroom Black. Her vocals light – with a sultry snag of vintage Britney’s lip-bitten moan – over wonky synths, the 23-year-old from rural Lincolnshire channels a scene from 1989 high-school movie Say Anything, as she asks a lover to imagine her standing outside his house with “a freshly ripped heart from my ribcage, and a boombox/ How pathetic, babe.” Oh yes, the youthful heartbreak force is strong in this one! No wonder her label sent her out on tour supporting Olivia Rodrigo.
The buzz around Humberstone – a classically trained violinist turned singer-songwriter – built slowly. Pre-pandemic, she sent some demos off to the BBC and won herself a slot on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury 2019, where she was spotted by a manager. Although there was no music scene in her part of northern England, the Covid pandemic had levelled the playing field by ensuring there was no music scene anywhere.
