Angel Murray’s rebellion against the hyperreal
We are all, in some way, being watched. Online, at work, by algorithms, by people we’ll never meet. Our lives are performed as much as they are lived. We curate stories, filter flaws, pose like we’re not posing. And yet, behind all this, we’re still trying to feel real, still searching for moments where we catch a glimpse of ourselves not through the eyes of others, but from within. That tension between being and being seen has quietly become one of the defining psychological pressures of a generation. And it’s here that Angel Murray’s presence feels strikingly relevant.
Born and raised in London, Murray is an artist who seems to operate on the fault line between clarity and distortion. She writes music, studies law, and navigates the spotlight without succumbing to it. Her image isn’t overly polished, but it isn’t lo-fi rebellion either. Instead, it’s something rarer: composed ambiguity. “I’ve experienced both sides,” she says. “Being the one obsessed and being the one placed on a pedestal. It’s fascinating, and slightly frightening, to witness how much someone’s perception of you can shape their emotions.” Rather than offering a tidy narrative, she gestures toward complexity. What if your identity doesn’t need to make sense to anyone, even you?
In many ways, she is emblematic of a new kind of young cultural figure. Not built for virality, but for contradiction. Her background in law isn’t a contradiction to her music career, it’s part of the same logic: a way to navigate systems, whether legal or emotional, that shape how we understand each other. That might sound abstract, but it’s deeply practical. Today’s artists are expected to be everything at once. Murray doesn’t perform that pressure. She just lives it. “There are so many people and so many things that happen in the world,” she told one interviewer, “so for me to worry about people maybe not understanding what I mean in my songs wouldn’t make much sense… and I also can’t control that. But I wouldn’t try to! Perception is a beautiful thing when it comes to music.”
Her latest track Dreamt You reflects these tensions but doesn’t resolve them. It lingers in the ambiguity of longing—not only wanting someone, but knowing you’re also being imagined, distorted, romanticised in return. She sings from inside that loop, not above it. And yet, the more compelling story may be what the song represents: a refusal to explain too much. In an industry that still rewards clear messages and ‘relatable’ content, Murray lets the edges blur. She allows listeners to bring their meaning, and in doing so, meets them somewhere deeper.
That refusal is powerful. It resists the pressure to flatten or brand yourself into coherence. In a time when many young people are exhausted by performance, tired of having to know who they are at all times, Angel Murray is a reminder that uncertainty is not only permissible, it’s sometimes the most honest place to be. Whether she’s behind a microphone or a casebook, she seems more interested in how perception works than in controlling it. And that, in itself, is a kind of freedom.