Holly Humberstone - Live Review

Holly Humberstone at the O2 Academy Oxford was just what I needed on a Sunday night. It was a sold out evening in support of the new album Cruel World, which was an outstore date with Truck Record Store. I’ve seen her twice before both back in 2024, once at Truck Festival and then opening for Taylor Swift at Wembley, so this was the opposite of that. Smaller, calmer, and a lot more about the words.

The stage looked like a little indoor garden, flowers and trees dotted all around. The set was stripped back, but it still had shape. She swapped between acoustic guitar and just standing there singing, with extra guitar and keys filling out the gaps and a few drum beats nudging songs forward. To Love Somebody opened the night and it was instant quiet in the crowd, that rare thing where people actually stop talking because they don’t want to miss the first line.

She talked a lot between songs, in a way that felt more like she was working through it than doing a speech. “You can tell I haven’t done this for a really long time,” she said at one point, smiling like she didn’t fully believe she was back in a room like this. She kept mentioning the new album, that it’s out soon, that she’s excited, and that she’s done a lot of thinking for it. It fitted the mood, because the whole set had that slightly exposed feeling.

The crowd did a weirdly nice thing too. When Holly went quiet you could hear a harmony coming from somewhere behind me, then a few more people joined in, soft enough that it didn’t overpower. It made the quieter songs feel even closer. Die Happy came with a quick explanation about old films and the stuff she loved as a kid, and it played like a simple love song without any big drama about it.

Beauty Pageant was the moment where you could feel the room holding its breath. She introduced it as the most personal and most embarrassing thing she’s written, then talked about being a girl, her sisters, the unfair standards, and that trapped feeling of spending ages getting ready for someone else’s idea of “right”. It wasn’t a rant, more like she was admitting it out loud for the first time. People near the front lowered their phones, and for once it stayed that way.

New single Cruel World, released last week and apparently her favourite thing she’s ever written, got the biggest reaction of the night. Even in this stripped back format it still had a proper lift to it, keys and beat giving it a pulse. Later on she framed Deep End with the lockdown story, and that line about it being the only thing she ever wanted to do as a kid. By the time the closer arrived, the room was fully with her, not loud, just tuned in.

Walking out, it felt like the kind of gig you remember because of the intimacy. She finished with, “Thanks for being here. Can’t wait for you to hear all the new stuff.” No big finale, just a warm goodbye and a special evening with someone who is clearly only on the up.