Singing The Song That's in All of Us

"Hi Ren" by Ren was brought to my attention by Amanda Palmer. She said it was what "Girl Anachronism" would have been if she would have done it on guitar and listened more to Eminem. She meant this as a compliment and high praise. I tend to trust her taste in music so I gave it a shot.

Here's the thing. This song, which is a song but also a very frank piece of performance art, can possibly ONLY be performed by Ren. It's very deeply personal to him. And at the same time,  this song is the inner dialogue of every person with mental illness, every person struggling with substance addiction, every artist, and maybe even just EVERYONE in general.

This song is my inner dialogue when things are bad. The darker voice in my head that tells me horrible things and reminds me of every mistake I've ever made. The self-loathing and self-doubt. It's the part that paralyzes me and leaves me up at night crying because it keeps telling me how horrible I am but that at the same time, I NEED to know that because it's the truth. 

The battle here moves from the commonplace to the divine and back again, kind of settling in this metaphysical landscape of both. All of the conflicts in this song is something that struggling people will go through maybe several times a day, sometimes several times an hour. There are days when this battle never stops but just plays over and over again. It's exhausting.

The song is genius. Even the way he breaks the 4th Wall is genius. It's honest and brutal and brilliant. The guitar work is stunning and the acting, because there IS acting involved here, is so very believable.