And credit s for finding go to YouTube algorithm [style]
Yeah, 'the algorithm' is useful and pretty good, although I'm still a bit miffed that it took it so long to introduce me to this:
It was only a couple of months ago that it first came up and that I first heard it! And I feel like I missed out as a result!! (If it was really clever and advanced it would have known a long time ago how much I would appreciate and enjoy this!? Maybe one day it will be, but the internet in general seems to be getting worse rather than better in so many ways.)
I'm sure all the praise about this track and Ren has already been said and heard, but I somehow missed all of it, and surely this is a once in a generation level of genius of musical and lyrical talent!
The lyrics are genius level clever (without being in the least bit pretentious) and stunningly insightful, poetic, powerful, and moving, with his depiction of his battle with mental illness and his inner battle of the 2 parts of him, consisiting of his inner critic, and the other part of him that knows he has a gift, is stunning, even if it has been done before, as he alludes to. The words move me so much with the way he's articulated something most of probably go through; the self doubt vs the strength of the self belief. Even if most of us don't have to deal with that battle on a level that seems to have been made even harder for him, as it seems that it was inextricably linked with his psychotic illness. And all the different and highly original things he does with his voice and the guitar is also phenominal! He's incredibly versatile!
IIRC You Tube used to have a home page for music, that was for the currently trending stuff. There was a category for music, and it was trending because it was good, and a grass roots word of mouth thing, not because of record company PR or getting on radio playlists or w/e.
The most memorable tracks I recall being introduced to a long time ago were Birdy's cover of Skinny Love (how good was that!!?) and from there to a number of other brilliant recordings she's done, and also Adelle's "Hello." A bit more recently the Algorithm gave me The Calling's Wherever I will Go, and Iris, by the Goo Goo Dolls. So I remain thankful for the introduction to all of those fantastic tracks!
Before that, I remember the number one trending video for a time, in the earlier days, was a video of The Pixies "Hey" as the soundtrack, featuring a couple of young females, rocking out to the track in their bedroom, with feeling! That is still on there, it's called "Hey Clip."
I don't think the music home page feature exists any more? Another example of the internet getting worse, poorer, and much more limited and restricted as time goes on. Although I have just seen that there is a list of top 100 most played tracks of the last week. There is a hyperlink to click next to the listing under the Ren track, which states that the track is still in the top 100 most listened to in the UK, 2 years after it's release. Even if it is now number 82 in that list.
