Tallulah Rendall’s new album ‘Only Human’ is built around the unusually open admission that healing is rarely graceful, linear or complete. Across its twelve songs, she moves through shame, panic, grief, self-worth and belonging, drawing directly from experiences that include a toxic relationship and the death of her father. The album is also framed as part of a wider therapeutic project concerned with emotional repair and connection.
The opening track ‘Human’ sets the tone with a subtle, organic trip-hop pulse and a sense of breath running through the arrangement. But from there, the album broadens considerably.
‘Bold And Free’ pushes towards something more rhythmic and declarative, while ‘Run’ addresses panic and the instinct to escape difficult emotions. ‘Shame’ sits as one of the more forceful moments, pairing anthemic scale with a stark assertion of self-worth, while ‘Pillars’ moves between fragility, intensity and release against strings, rhythmic guitar and percussion.
Produced by the artist with Rowland O’Connor and recorded at Sorting Room Studios in Devon, the album brings together piano, synths, bass, guitar, drums, double bass and cello around her voice, giving the record enough depth to feel cinematic without losing its intimacy. The result is one of her most complete statements to date.
But what makes this project so enticing is that the therapeutic framing never entirely replaces the music.
‘Only Human’ remains a record first; capturing something immersive, emotionally direct and carefully textured. Its larger message is simple enough to risk cliché, but the artist at the helm earns it through detail and vulnerability at every opportunity.
The album doesn’t promise transcendence or to resolve the questions at the heart of it. It offers something farmore grounded: the possibility of returning to yourself after a period in which that felt difficult to imagine.