TRACK REVIEW: Holly Humberstone - Haunted House

TRACK REVIEW:

Holly Humberstone

Haunted House

9.4/10

The track, Haunted House, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ochdwb85T6M

GENRES:

Alternative Rock/Indie

ORIGIN:

Grantham, U.K.

RELEASE DATE:

6th April, 2021

LABEL:

Universal Music Operations Limited

__________

IN this review…

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Curtis Hughes

I get to spotlight one of Britain’s brightest young artists. The twenty-one-year-old Holly Humberstone looks set to have a very bright and impactful career. I have been following her career for a while now. She has announced a new E.P., Emotional Grim Reaper, for this year. It follows her acclaimed E.P. of last year, Falling Asleep at the Wheel. I will come to her previous E.P. in a while. Before then, there are a few other things that I want to cover off the list. Like I say with all of my reviews, I like to go deep and look at an artist’s background and their previous work. I will lead my way to Humberstone’s new track, Haunted House, soon. Humberstone’s songs and lyrics are so strong and natural, I always imagined that she began writing at a very young age. As we learn from an i-D interview, that was indeed the case:

“The artist -- who got noticed after sending a demo to her local BBC Introducing show -- remembers sitting in front of the piano as a child, tasked with turning the open poetry book her dad placed in front of her into music. “It was pretty cute!” she says. “I’ve genuinely been writing songs for as long as I can remember. It’s something I loved to do to help me process all the confusing things that were happening to me as I was growing up.” It’s through writing that Holly figures out how she’s feeling, noting that it’s “genuinely such a good form of therapy, as a lot of the time I find conversations really difficult and awkward”. Instead, she expresses herself in song form, always aiming to “make something beautiful out of a bad experience”.

Holly Humberstone hails from Grantham. Aside from the late former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, I am not sure whether there is anyone of note that comes from that part of Lincolnshire. Maybe it is a slightly auspicious honour being linked to Thatcher! In any case, it seems like the area is quite quiet and does not offer that much opportunity for an aspiring musician.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Curtis Hughes

When Humberstone spoke with RAIN last year, the subject of her home city arose. Humberstone was quite honest when it came to talking about the limitations and privation associated with living in the area:

“Mark Benjamin: Many people probably have not heard of your hometown Grantham in Lincolnshire, U.K.. I read you wrote most of the upcoming EP at your childhood home described as a ‘withering country home.’ Tell us about it. How was growing up for you there?

Holly Humbertsone: I grew up in the middle of nowhere with my three sisters. It was pretty amazing growing up here because there’s so much space. All we used to do is play and be creative. We were really encouraged by our parents to do art and music, so there was never really a dull moment. As you can imagine with six of us, it was always a messy house and sadly it seems to be slowly falling apart, but it’s characterful and such a huge part of my identity”.

I am not sure whether she still goes back there now, but I assume that Humberstone is now based in London. Her career has taken off the past year or so…and whilst her home has that sense of comfort and family, it is a bit of a drag commuting to cities like London to play gigs!

I want to go back to the start of Humberstone’s career. Whilst last year and this year have been very exciting and successful years, that has not always been the case. Like so many artists, Humberstone had to commute to play gigs. There was this period where she was honing her craft and trying to get her music to as many people as possible. As this interview with The Line of Best Fit highlights, a meeting with producer Rob Milton was an important moment:

“Humberstone has had the distinctly 2020 experience of having her career kick off during lockdown. After stints on local radio and on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury, Humberstone began commuting up and down to London to launch her career, working with lots of different writers, a process which she described as “too much for me.” She recounts struggling to find her own voice - unsurprising, given she was only in her teens: “When I started writing music, all I wrote was piano ballads about love and heartbreak, even though I was way too young to know about any of that.”

Eventually, she met Rob Milton - a writer and producer, who lived just down the road in Nottingham. He had been a member of Dog is Dead, which Humberstone had “fangirled” over. They set up a studio in a spare room in Humberstone’s family home, and the writing process finally clicked: “It instantly felt more like me when I began to write with Rob. I think maybe it had something to do with writing at home, too - the house is really characterful and old, I think you can hear some of those weird, quirky sounds within the songs.”

She got her big break supporting Lewis Capaldi on his UK tour. In February, Humberstone was playing Wembley Arena. By March, she was in lockdown, back in her childhood bedroom in Grantham: “It was full on, like 100 to zero.” Humberstone recounts. Like most of us, she struggled during lockdown. “I was putting loads of pressure on myself to be really creative, to write loads and be really prolific, but I just wasn’t inspired by anything”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Phoebe Fox

I said that I would mention Humberstone’s E.P., Falling Asleep At the Wheel. I am going to come to that soon. The title track itself resonated with so many people. It took on a life of its own and, to me, it is one of Humberstone’s most affecting and incredible tracks. Her lyrics are always stunning – something else I will explore -, and they seem to be at their very best here. In the interview with RAIN that I have already quoted from, Humberstone explained the significance of the track:

“MB: “Falling Asleep at the Wheel” is such a personal and heartfelt song. You connect a metaphor of falling asleep at the wheel to a romance that maybe you start to feel a stranger in. Lyrics like, ‘you never smoked this much when we first met, light up light light up.’ I love these lyrics! I feel like these vignettes must be based on real life events? Is that right?

HH: I try to write about real experiences I’m going through, and a lot of the time I’m trying to work out how I feel about certain things. Sitting down to write this song was a bit like a therapy session for me; I was trying to make sense of a relationship that seemed to be losing momentum and going a bit stale. I try to write as honestly as possible, as I feel that people latch on to the little personal details”.

I would advise people to check out the E.P., as it is one of the finest released of 2020. It gained huge critical acclaim (and rightfully so). It is proof that, in Holly Humberstone, we have a hugely talented artist who is going to go a very long way indeed.

PHOTO CREDIT: Phoebe Fox

With this talent and promise has come plaudits and recognition. I am coming onto a BBC Sound of… interview in a bit, as this was one of the biggest honours in Humberstone’s career so far. Going back to the interview with The Line of Best Fit, there was a passage that caught my eye. In the way she is painted, it is clear there is a lot of affection and respect out there for her:

“In these strange, scary times which have forced us all into mandatory solitude, we have increasingly relied on music to provide us with intimacy. One only has to look at the mid-pandemic successes of hushed releases from Phoebe Bridgers, Taylor Swift and Fiona Apple to see that we are seeking out music to act as a cool compress on the nation’s fevered brow: music to commiserate, to soothe, to heal.

Holly Humberstone should be available on prescription. She makes complex pop music that slips effortlessly between piano ballads, dark disco beats and shimmering indie rock guitar. It’s difficult to slot Humberstone’s music into one genre, but she has an instinct for combining a magpie-like musical eclecticism with sturdy, almost mathematical pop sensibilities, similar to the equally precocious Lorde and Billie Eilish.

Despite only being twenty years old, Humberstone’s music is surprising in both its emotional intensity and in the musical textures she deploys. Humberstone has the sort of classically beautiful, soulful voice that could win her a spot on a John Lewis christmas advert with very little effort, but instead she swaddles her voice in skittering beats and strange fragments of processed guitar. The result is Falling Asleep At The Wheel - her debut EP, six songs which are as candid and gentle as they are sonically slippery”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Phoebe Fox

Not that it is a definite indicator an artist is going to go on to big things, but the annual BBC Sound of… is a hunt for the best new artists. Humberstone was recognised and placed second in the 2021 poll. I wanted to bring a few bits of the BBC interview that she gave around the time of being named as one of their Sound of… 2021 artists:

“Congratulations on making the BBC Sound of 2021 list. After a year of being stuck at home, does any of this feel real?

Not really, no. So far, my whole career feels like it has been over social media. I've never done a headline show or anything like that, so I'm really looking forward to being able to play live again in a few months.

Just before lockdown, you supported Lewis Capaldi at Wembley. What was that like?

I didn't expect to be doing Wembley. I was booked for the Europe leg of the tour - and I was terrified because I'd gone from playing to 200 people to 12,000 in the space of a month or two.

Wembley happened when the American support act couldn't come over because of Covid. I was like, "Fine. If you're forcing me, I'll do it!"

So, for people who only know of Grantham as the birthplace of Margaret Thatcher - what was it like growing up there?

It's a really, really rural part of England. Quite old fashioned and feudal. But I had a really lovely childhood because we're in this really old, freezing cold, falling down house about 20 minutes out of town; and my parents always encouraged us to be creative.

My dad's obsessed with poetry, and he used to put little poetry books in front of me - like Leonard Cohen or TS Eliot. I didn't understand anything they were talking about, but I used to make up little songs to them.

Then I started off writing kind of crap songs [of my own], and parents were like, "Oh, this is great, she's doing something creative!" And somehow I ended up doing my hobby as a job”.

I will spend a bit of time with Holly Humberstone’s lyrics. I think this is a cornerstone of her work. She is an exceptional writer who places importance on the power of her words. Coming back to that BBC interview, it seems that she wants people to remember her lyrics:

“When the 21-year-old sits down to write her emotionally-captivating pop songs, she doesn't just want them to be memorable. She wants them to be indelible.

"When we were writing, we said that if a lyric isn't painfully honest and really brutal, then it can't be on the song," she says.

"That's what I aim for: If it doesn't look like a really dodgy, tattoo-on-the-arm lyric, then it doesn't go on."

So far, no-one's actually inked one of her songs onto their wrist ("obviously I'm doing something wrong," she laughs) but it won't be long.

Humberstone's sparse arrangements and effortless vocals focus your attention on those lyrics - a mixture of acutely-observed detail and conversational asides.

"You never smoked this much before we met," she sings on the recent single, Falling Asleep At The Wheel, raking over the embers of a dying relationship. "Don't know how I got you in such a mess”.

Why do you think so many people have fallen for your lyrics?

Being exposed to poetry might have something to do with it - but also, I don't keep a diary, so my songs are my way of working through confusing feelings of growing up and being young. Writing a song clears my head and helps everything make sense. So I think that's maybe why people are connecting with it - because it's just universal stuff I'm going through.

Deep End is another song that stands out. Am I right that it was written about one of your sisters, when she was going through a difficult time?

Yeah, that's right. I find conversations about mental health really hard, so that song was sort of my way of speaking to my sister and telling her that I don't always understand what she's going through, but I'm always here.

It was a bit of a hopeless feeling at the time but I think after writing it, it was a weight off my shoulders - and she really loved it, as well”.

I’m sticking on that theme for a little bit longer. Coming back to the RAIN interview. There was a question that related to the connectivity and relationship between Humbertstone’s strong lyrics and the sonic make-up of a track:

“MB: You’re such a strong lyricist and songwriter. How do you decide how a song should sound sonically?

HH: I think most of the time the sonics of the song should reflect what’s being said lyrically. Either one can inspire the other for me. For example, when I’m writing I sometimes have a lyric idea first and base the sonics off of that, but sometimes we build a bit of a vibe first and make sounds we love, and then decide what we want the song to say”.

I am working my way forward. There are a few things I need to cover before I get to Humberstone’s latest song. In quite a short space of time, she has gone from this promising artist to someone who has sort of blown up. It could be hard to remain rooted and not get overwhelmed by the focus and adulation that has come her way this past year or too. When she was interviewed by LADYGUNN last year, the subject of sudden success was introduced:

“IN THE PAST FEW MONTHS, YOU HAVE AMASSED A SUBSTANTIAL FAN BASE OF OVER A MILLION SPOTIFY MONTHLY LISTENERS, HAVE PERFORMED ON JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE, HAVE BEEN NAMED APPLE MUSIC’S NEXT UP ARTIST, HAVE MADE IT ON ROLLING STONE’S BREAKTHROUGH 25 CHART, AND MUCH MORE. DID YOU EVER ENVISION YOU WOULD BE WHERE YOU ARE NOW? HOW DO YOU STAY GROUNDED?

No way! The EP is so personal, it feels like my whole life for the last 3 or 4 years and the fact that people are resonating with the songs and my experiences so much is so sick. I think I put quite a bit of pressure on myself though so I’m always thinking of how I can do better next time which isn’t always healthy! I guess I stay grounded because I never feel like I’ve done enough and always need to write a better song”.

The Falling Asleep At the Wheel E.P. was a remarkable one. I still listen to it now, and I recall the sort of buzz there was when it was released into the world. I am very much looking forward to a new E.P. from Humberstone and what she has to offer. Her music is so impactful and impressive. I will round off the review by looking ahead, though I feel Humberstone has many years of music to offer the world.

One of the things I am looking forward to when things ease in this country is live music. Humberstone is an amazing live artist who has already performed on some massive stages. When she spoke with DORK last year, we learn which gig was especially memorable for her:

“Can you remember what your first experiences going to gigs were like?

I remember my first gig so well. I was probably about thirteen and my two elder sisters took me to see Tame Impala in Nottingham. All I remember is being so tiny compared to everyone else there and feeling like I was genuinely going to be squished amongst crowds of over-excitable 20-year-old white boys. I love Tame Impala, but sadly I don’t remember the music as I was just in survival mode the whole time, haha.

Some of the shows you’ve played already have been proper massive, do any stand out as particular highlights?

I think supporting Lewis Capaldi at Wembley has to be a highlight gig for me. I had just got back from the European tour with him and got awfully drunk with my sister, only to be woken up at the crack of dawn by my manager the next morning telling me I was doing Wembley the next day. I was still exhausted from the tour, and I was pretty delirious on stage but was loving it the whole time. Also, the feeling after I had played the set was pretty unbeatable”.

Her Falling Asleep At the Wheel E.P. is a terrific one. Small wonder it received such love and acclaim. I do not usually bring in other reviews when writing a review myself. As it was for a different release, I can feed in a review from Variety. This is what they had to say about Falling Asleep At the Wheel:

“As is often the case with such seemingly wide-ranging appeal, it’s all for a good reason: Humberstone has a lovely and versatile voice and a remarkably effortless way with a melody. While there are flashes of several other artists in her songs — Sia, Lorde, Haim, James Blake, Billie Eilish and especially Phoebe Bridgers — this debut EP (which includes all of the aforementioned singles) finds her arriving nearly fully formed.

Having said that, the opening track here, “Deep End,” is so Phoebe-esque it’s a borderline tribute song, but Humberstone quickly shakes that off and explores several other worlds over the course of this six-song EP. In fact, there almost seems to be two different artists on display here, one who leans toward more melancholy, at times quavering songs, and another who almost seems to be fighting off an innate, Olympic-level pop ability. Based on the upbeat songs here, the deceptively elaborate and sophisticated “Overkill” and “Vanilla,” she could be cranking out chart-topping hits in Hollywood if she chose that route.

Instead, she’s taking a more interesting path that combines the two: Despite the heavy subject matter of many of her songs — mental health, toxic relationships and emotional upheaval — there’s an almost offhand ease to others; even “Drop Dead” has an oddly upbeat chorus. And while the songs are guitar or piano-based, collaborator Rob Milton helps flesh them out, adding color with electronic textures and rhythms.

But it’s Humberstone’s show all the way — her solo performance on “Jimmy Kimmel” earlier this week shows what a gifted singer she is — and “Falling Asleep at the Wheel” marks the arrival of a major new talent”.

I think one of the key things about the sound and success of Falling Asleep At the Wheel is the bond and working relationship between Humberstone and writer-producer Rob Milton. Also, aside from her innate and undeniable talents, there are other artists and sounds that influenced the E.P. Drawing from an article in The New York Times, we learn more about artists Humberstone was being influenced by when making Falling Asleep At the Wheel:

“For songwriting, she’s partial to the detailed approach of the indie singer and songwriter Phoebe Bridgers; in quarantine, Humberstone said, the release of Bridgers’s latest album “Punisher” “literally saved me.” And Humberstone gravitates toward musicians like Bon Iver, Frank Ocean and James Blake, who slather their intuitive melodies under layers of abstraction.

Milton said that they listened to a lot of Elliott Smith and Simon & Garfunkel, drawn to the thickness of the vocal layering — “a magical freaky element.”

“We detuned the guitars to fit with the melodies,” he added. “All the tunings of the guitars are just complete nonsense. It’s some kind of Slipknot heavy metal tuning.”

Rather than signing to a label, Humberstone made a deal with Platoon, an artist services company that also placed early bets on Jorja Smith and Eilish. “I do think Holly is a lot like Billie,” said Denzyl Feigelson, Platoon’s founder, in a phone interview. “They have a sense about them as to their mood and their emotions and how they write their songs.”

During the months that Humberstone has been back at home, she’s been chipping away at promotional work — music videos, social media clips — sometimes with her family helping out behind the scenes”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Phoebe Fox

Although we are looking ahead to new work, one cannot overlook the impact Falling Asleep At the Wheel made. The response was incredible. In an interview with CLASH, it seemed that Humberstone’s words and powerful music made a big impression on many people:

“Despite drawing from different experiences, people, and emotions for each track, the EP is incredibly coherent, and Humberstone pins this down to the fact that “it’s so personal and it all fits together as snapshots of times in my life.” Each track feels like a warm hug - not one that helps you forget your problems, but one that eases your guilt and lets you settle into the wallowing, knowing that you’re not alone. Her repetition of “how am I supposed to be your ray of light, I get dark sometimes,” in the title track, is somewhat jarring, due to its candour.

Holly’s familiar tone and relatability translate seamlessly from speaking on zoom to the intimacy of her music. For someone so young the EP is raw, introspective and irrevocably addictive. Opening track ‘Deep End’ discusses mental illness and the feeling of helplessness when people you love go through something difficult. Lyricism such as “I’ll be your medicine if you let me, give you reason to get out of bed…and help you escape from your head,” are deeply sad yet cathartic.

After releasing, Holly noticed that “loads of people reached out to me saying this is exactly like me and my sister or friend and it’s so crazy that so many other people have the same feelings and things going on you know?” ‘Falling Asleep At The Wheel’ as a whole has a huge heart, one only matched by the artist herself”.

I think one of the things that makes Humberstone unique is because her sound is not rigid and easy to define. There is so many different layers and elements to her music. Returning to that interview from The New York Times, and both Humberstone and Rob Milton discussed the music and sound of one of Britain’s brightest young musicians:

“I’m still trying to figure out what kind of genre I am, to be honest,” she said, speaking over Zoom from her family’s home in the countryside outside Grantham, in England’s East Midlands. She’d been holed up there since the beginning of the pandemic, right after she finished opening on tour for the Scottish pop crooner Lewis Capaldi”.

Spiritually, she’s in the tradition of recent stars like Lorde and Billie Eilish, who have extremely sturdy pop savvy but whose emotional interests are complicated and sometimes gloomy, and whose music blurs aesthetics borrowed from rock, dance music and beyond. What unites Humberstone’s songs, though, is a heavy emotional ballast, making for an almost physical warmth. That’s true when she’s writing about relationships, like on the title track, which even though it shifts from piano march to dance thump, is actually a “dance song for people who don’t bother going out,” Milton joked”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alexander Coggin for The New York Times

The final topic I want to explore before coming on to Haunted House is the lyrical and musical tones of Humberstone’s work and how they relate to one another. In that interview from The Line of Best Fit, she explains what songwriting means/is to her:

“Her music may tend towards the dark and stormy, but Humberstone is still a twenty year old. When she hasn’t been working on her EP’s promotional cycle, she’s been binge-watching New Girl – “I’ve just really fallen in love with the characters. I love watching stuff that’s minimal energy, you can just veg out and not have to think.” It’s a relief to hear that she’s decompressing – Humberstone very much comes from the diary-entry school of songwriting, with her songs functioning as “therapy sessions”: “My songwriting is just me trying to figure stuff out and work through the mess that’s in my brain”.

I think there is this pleasing blend between uplifting and the more personal. Humberstone is unafraid to bring honesty and plenty of herself into the music - although she is never too heavy when doing so. Going back the CLASH interview, we get an insight into Humberstone’s songs and why she can find it hard to explore her feelings:

“The EP also features much more upbeat pop moments, yet the lyrics remain vulnerable throughout. In ‘Vanilla,’ Humberstone’s vocals attempt to breathe life into a “dull” and “lifeless” relationship, where she states, “we’re perfectly comfortable, in the worst way.” It paints a delicate picture of a situation too many of us find ourselves in, seeing through a relationship past its sell-by-date, and she admits that “the truth is, I have my best nights without you.”

Oppositely, ‘Overkill’ maps the anxieties that come with a new relationship, “don’t wanna be a buzzkill / if I’m coming on too strong.” It is perfectly self-indulgent, yet aware enough to know that these are not unique feelings. “It’s scary for me to write but I know that I’m writing about universal stuff and that my situation isn’t going to be unique, if I’m going through something, others will be too.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Alexander Coggin for The New York Times

“Something that really makes me happy is that people can relate and find a bit of comfort in my songs,” Holly mentions. This sense of validation is a two-way street, for the listener to hear something they connect with, and also for Humberstone herself to know that people across the globe are relating to her music. In terms of her writing process, she cannot go without it. “I find it really difficult to navigate my feelings, and I don’t even know what I’m feeling most of the time until I write it down in a song”. Indeed, her songs are a series of palatable three-minute therapy sessions. “I’m often just a ball of pent-up stress and then after writing I feel so much better.”

Finding it tricky to open up or articulate feelings can be difficult at the best of times, and Holly Humberstone has found the perfect outlet to unravel her thoughts. “It’s my way of processing and its like therapy for me. I need to do it to figure out how I’m really feeling.”

However, rather than looking inward, she considers those around her and the purpose of the music itself. “I considered it for a bit but then I remembered the new music that has been put out during long down that I have absolutely been so grateful for. Phoebe Bridgers’ new album saved me, and Taylor Swift’s ‘folklore’ as well. People are at home and kind of need music now more than ever (that sounds so cringey but it’s kind of true). I think it is a great time to release music.”

The loneliness that can accompany lockdown is inescapable, and if her music can provide a sense of intimacy for someone, then that is the biggest compliment for her. “I’ve definitely found that listening to music during lockdown has been such a huge part of my day and has really helped me in a therapeutic way, so hopefully it will help someone somewhere - that would be really cool”.

Rather than do a conclusion paragraph/section at the end, I am going to finish with the review of Haunted House. Follow Holly Humberstone on social media and keep abreast of what she is up to. I am sure there will be live dates later in the year. Plus, there is going to be the Emotional Grim Reaper E.P. It is unusual going into the review knowing that there is a lot of detail online regarding its origins and inspiration. I will come to that but, in the review, I am going to give my impression and feelings regarding Haunted House. In this NME article, we discover some backstory to an awesome new song:

“Holly Humberstone has released a new single about the crumbling Lincolnshire home she grew up in, titled ‘Haunted House’.

Exploring themes of home, family and displacement, ‘Haunted House’ is the first new music from the singer-songwriter this year, and is taken from Humberstone’s upcoming EP.

In a statement, Humberstone explained how her childhood home shaped the people she and her family have become.

“With my sisters and I moving out and living separate lives, coming home feels very comforting and one of the only things keeping us all connected,” she said.

“The house is almost falling down around us now though, and we’ve realised that pretty soon we’ll be forced to leave. Loads of people have probably died here in the past but I’ve always felt really safe. It’s like a seventh family member. It’s part of me.”

‘Haunted House’ arrives alongside a music video filmed at Humberstone’s actual childhood house itself. By candlelight, the artist performs the song at a sheet-covered piano as the camera moves through the house. Her parents also make a guest appearance”.

Before coming to my review, I want to grab from Humberstone’s YouTube video for the song. There, she explained what Haunted House is all about and the origins of its tale:

“There have been a lot of changes in my life recently and although change is necessary, it has often felt like my childhood is slipping away from me. My family home is this weird old house in the countryside and it’s kind of falling down around us. It’s where I wrote the whole of my first EP and the sounds of the house inspired the wonky sonics. My family are a very tight knit group, I have three sisters and we’re all pretty much the same person. It’s been really sad in the past few years that we’ve all been living different lives in different parts of the country and haven’t had a lot of chance to see each other. During lockdown my sisters and I all moved back home and it was just like how it was when we were kids. Coming home feels very comforting and one of the only things keeping us all connected.

Now as lockdown slowly comes to a close, my family home is writing its last chapter of its own story. We’d been told last summer that we might be forced to leave because the house is crumbling down around us. Mushrooms have now started growing out of the walls, panes of glass fall out of the windows and the big tree that used to be our treehouse has snapped and fallen. It’s a very old house anyway, with a crazy cellar featuring meat hooks too !! I’d always feared that we might have to leave, it has shaped me and my music. All of my precious family childhood memories are in this house and it almost feels like a 7th family member to us, so letting go was always going to be really painful and weird.

I wrote Haunted House just after we’d been told that we needed to leave. At the time I had also lost someone close to me & the song felt like my way of saying goodbye and a tribute to all the memories I’d made at there over the years. We have a family friend who has supernatural powers and whenever she’s round, she says that she can feel the ghosts in the house and it got me thinking that if there really are ghosts here, then they must be nice, nurturing ones that have watched over my sisters and I as we’ve grown up.

We shot the video at my house and my mum and dad even make an appearance in it. There’s a few hints to other songs off the EP in the video too”.

Not that there is such a thing as a haunted house (I have suspicions of people who believe in such a thing), but it is clear that Humberstone’s Lincolnshire house carries a lot of memories and history. The video begins with lights flickering in the house. It is almost like the start of a gothic film where we are introduced to an unsettling place that will loom large through the film. Rather than the song being inflected and infused with fear and the macabre, there is a beauty and delicate grace that emanates from Humberstone. The opening lines are powerful and revealing: “They say this house is haunted/But all these ghosts I’ve grown with/As it slips away from me/I still hold on hopelessly/I lay my head to sleep and say goodnight”. In the video, we see Humberstone play a piano as there are dust sheets over furniture. It seems like the house is either abandoned or it is being renovated. In vocal terms, I think there are similarities between Humberstone and the U.S. artist, Billie Eilish. I am not sure whether Humberstone listens to Eilish a lot. I feel there are connections between the two. With light and sweet piano backing a tremulous and resonant vocal, I was impacted not only by the visuals in the video (where we get shots of chandeliers, Humberstone looking out of the window and the sense that there used to be life in this old house) but the lyrics. It is Humberstone’s strong suit, and I think she delivers one of her finest set of lyrics on Haunted House. The imagery she projects is amazing and hugely evocative: “Bringing up four daughters/Made a house a fortress/Dirty knees and honey bees/Nowhere else would sting as sweet/Can’t believe we’re turning off the light”.

Whilst there is no real shift in terms of pace and tone, I think the mood and sound is appropriate for a song that holds a lot of reverence, personal significance and haunt. “And one day I’ll drive past you/If I recognise you/I’ll try not to stay too long/See the soil I grew upon/In a couple years I’ll be alright” are lines that not only mean a lot to Humberstone; they will also mean a lot to other people – those who feel a connection to a childhood home and the memories held in the walls, soil and every nook. I would be interested to see where the house is that the video was filmed in (I have looked for information regarding that but could not find it; maybe I have missed where Humberstone revealed that), as it is this space that looks very homely but, at the same time, there is something unsettling and vacant. With direction by Raja Virdi and script and creative direction from Josh Sanger and Holly Humberstone, we do get a moment where there is a slight change in pace. There is an intensity in the song and the video. In the video, the camera rotates around Humberstone so that it appears like she is slowly turning; like the house is almost turning around her! It is a great device. The best lyrics are, in my view, reserved to the end: “So darling, pull the curtains/And in the morning/Let me lie here with you/Don’t say that I’m leaving/In the morning/Let me lie here with you”. The end of the video finds Humberstone standing straight and looking at the camera as it snows indoors. It is another wonderful image that bring to mind so many possibilities and questions as to the symbolism behind that. So many music videos pass one by. I feel Humberstone understands the important relationship between song and video and the impact one can make through the video medium. In terms of the song itself, Haunted House is one of Humberstone’s strongest yet. I am looking forward to seeing and hearing what arrives next. On the evidence of her previous work and the incredible Haunted House, in Holly Humberstone, we have a…