Joe Hughes took his own life at the age of 19, jumping off the Menai Bridge in Wales, around 3.00 a.m. on 28th December 2010. Ren was running to the bridge to try and stop him but arrived a couple of minutes too late. Ren wrote the song Freckled Angels about him and dedicated the album of the same name to him. He wrote For Joe more recently (after the Suicide track) - he went back to Wales for the first time in years and played the song to Joe's parents. He also raised £21,000 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution ( a voluntary search and rescue organisation who searched for Joe's body, but never found it)
I also live on Anglesey and remember when joe went missing it is always sad when someone is lost this way. I really feel ren needs his friends to help him through this. I too lost my best friend but our group also fractured we do tho get together on his birthday and anniversary of his death to share funny memories of him and try to laugh instead of cry
The first part was a stand alone song, from Ren's own perspective, and was ready for release. Ren had always felt that the song sounded incomplete. Shortly before it was due to be released he did an interview with Knox Hill in which he talked about the death of his friend Joe Hughes. Immediately after the interview he wrote and recorded the second part of the song (about Joe's death). So the first part is from the perspective of someone who has contemplated suicide but who decided not act on it. The second part is from the perspective of the personal impact a suicide has on those left behind. The tune did change abruptly but the themes kinda tie together.
First part: "It never really felt like the right time". From that same interview, Ren said that the first part was his usual work's quality; but that second part were the unaltered thoughts of a single night, and he deliberately left it just as it came and as he had recorded it on the spot. It has this dynamic of the first half uplifting you, wanting to sing along to the chorus of "Su¡c:de, su¡c:de su¡c:de su¡c:de!". Then the second part cashes in your empathy with the crying face of Ren and tears you all down. "For Joe" is different, as it starts off with the second half, but already sounds uplifting, and what follows is a poem, and the song "Freckled Angels", but not sung but recited as a poem. "Freckled Angels" is a 13yo song on the same topic, that is already uplifting, and that still works in the recital. It leaves you maybe not actually high, but with lifted spirits.
The abrupt change also fits the whole "Memento Mori" of this song. You just don't thing about death until it's too late. It's a wake up hammer. Yes people DO die
Yes, that's how life goes... in one moment you are dancing and chilling to a beat... and then someone you love has jumped off a bridge... the shock doesn't happen gently. That's why this sudden change in the song actually works.
This one hits hard for me. Lost my step son ( to this)this past New years day. He woulda been 18 on Feb 2nd. Miss him so much❤. Ren dropped a new one few days ago that fits so well on this roller coaster called DOWN ON THE BEAT . IT'S THE HAPPY ONE YOU'RE LOOKING FOR
The reason it feels like 2 parts is because it literally was Ren did an interview with Knox and after talking he wrote and added the latter part to the track if I'm recalling that correctly, maybe look at some of the busking or live performances he's done
Ren said that, prior to talking with Knox Hill, he hadn't talked about Joe in "a long time." He said that finally talking about it allowed him to finally begin processing and decided to write the 3rd verse because of it. You can tell it's still pretty raw because he breaks down at the end of "For Joe."
Appreciate your honest reaction. It’s frustrating as I have become a huge fan of Ren - I think he might be the most important thing to happen to music in decades, literally, and I want everyone to love him as much as I do! 😂 It’s his creativity, originality, talent, collabs, rapping, singing, musicianship, ability to adapt to any genre, the fact that he’s come through a living hell of severe illness and managed to get his music out into the world independently. It’s an amazing story and I think if you understand the background properly his deeper songs, like this one, mean a lot more and hit you like a sledgehammer. But… YES he DOES have a ton of fun and happy songs too! Please check out the Love Music trilogy, What You Want, Losing It, Murderer, Humble, Ocean, Dominoes (not exactly a fun song but more accessible), Runaway, not to mention any of his stuff with The Big Push, the list goes on and on…
It is the Love Music quadrilogy by now, and you could also count the most recent, Down On The Beat into that ilk. Humble and Ocean are actually not so fun, but also no tragedies. Lighter music, somewhat heavy lyrics.
@@sorenm.lairdsorries7547 Agreed. I overlooked LM Pt 4 but it’s not so much an upbeat number is it? And I think with Humble etc, it’s more that they’re the kind of songs you can playlist and revisit and have on in the background, which I think is what Spooky is looking to find. Maybe.
Great reaction @spookysquirrel ! This has a kind of sequel that is much more uplifting: "For Joe". Dropped just a week after Su¡c:de. You might just get allright again after that one. Happy songs? Lots actually. All 4 "Love Music Pt." 1♥, 2♥, 3♥ & 4♥songs, the most recent "Down On The Beat", the already mentioned bash¡t cracy "Losing It!", "The Big Push - Why My Woman?" (n.b. the "WHY" - not Oh!), "Ren & Sam - Blind Eyed Ft. Angry Car Park Attendant" (sad lyrics, hilarious video) and more. Thank you! 💟
The catchy beat supports the lamentation of the chorus - Oh I, oh I, oh I - such a grievous beauty, the soft sad keening of mourning, very Celtic -- and the references to hanging out on railroad tracks at night, that's both ideation and rehearsal - and the circling obsessive quality, the monotony of depression, the contemplation of nothingness - what is it like to die, what does it mean - and when a loved one turns his back on the world and checks out, a survivor feels rejected and also guilty - couldn't we have been more loving, more loveable? The awareness is both intolerable and unavoidable. And then, one may feel like following the lost soul over the edge, in an act of loyalty and hopeless love. The only thing to think is that the child within you doesn't deserve to go out this way - so be kind to yourself, seek comfort from others.
Ren happy/fun songs: "What you want", "Losing it", "the 90s", "The hunger", "love music", "power" and probably a bunch I don´t remember the name of right now.
Today I want to write something beautiful and eloquent but I’ve been staring at my computer screen for the past 10 minutes blankly. So I’ll just write. Today, the 1st of June is my friend Joe’s birthday. I first met Joe when I was 8 years old, my friend Josh said I had to meet this guy, so we both walked over to his, it took about 10 minutes from my house. I was greeted by this kid covered head to toe in freckles, he grinned at us, climbed onto the back of his sofa and screamed “Swanton Bomb!” then front flipped off the top and landed right onto his back on a stone floor. He lay still for a moment, twitched a few times, then got up, grinned at us, brushed himself off, and did it again. This was Joe. He’d do anything to make people laugh. He ended up becoming one of my best friends. He was there when we stole our first cigarettes out of his mums pack, way too young. He was there when I had my first kiss, with a girl twice my size on the back of the 42 bus. He was there when I first got so drunk I threw up in the woods after drinking as much white lightning Cider as we could. I was there when he did his first backflip on skates, and saw him do a 720 off of the pier cave, that moment became legendary. Joe was the funny one in our friend group, he’d make us laugh till it hurt. No one had a bad word to say about him. It was impossible not to like him. Usually we put celebrities, athletes and actors on pedestals, turn them into role models and admire them from a far. The person I admired was Joe. Him and Sagar knew every word to the songs id write, we’d get drunk at parties and they’d be singing along as loud as they could. It gave me a lot of confidence back then. On Christmas Eve 2010 I was sitting in a pub with Joe, he’d been feeling low after a couple of consecutive break ups. He tried to check himself into a mental health outpatient facility a few weeks earlier but they turned him away because he didn’t have an appointment. He turned to me and said that sometimes he wished he could just walk into the sea and keep walking. He said it in a kind of half joking throw away comment type of way, then took a sip of his drink, walked over to the juke box and put Dig by Incubus on. If I knew that was the last time I’d see Joe id have hugged him, told him how much I loved him, how much I looked up to him, how much we all loved him, and I wouldn’t have left that pub. I didn’t know that, so I finished my drink, said happy Christmas and left. Two nights after Christmas I got woken up by a phone call at 3am, it was my friend Ella. She told me Joe was on the Menai Bridge, a large suspension bridge connecting the main land to the isle of Anglesey where we lived. He’d been on the phone to her in tears saying goodbye. He told her to tell everyone he loved them. I pulled on my clothes as fast as I could and started running toward the bridge. It was up a hill. I lived about a ten minute walk away, I could run it in five. As I ran I started dialling then redialing his number. The line was busy, which was a good sign, it meant he was still on the phone to someone. As I got about halfway, the busy tone changed. It told me the line was out of service. I got a sinking feeling and picked up my speed. I arrived to the bridge minutes after I left my house. It was deafeningly quiet. I was the first person to arrive. I got there probably about 2 minutes too late. Joe’s body was never found. Initially we refused to believe he was gone. The coastguard came out that night, with boats, and helicopters. Me and my friends spent the next 10 days putting up missing posters everywhere we could, walking up and down beaches with flashlights, getting about 3 hours sleep a night. When you’re walking up and down a beach with a torch when its dark everything looks like a body. We still haven’t found Joe. As his birthday came around, I wrote a song, freckled angels, a song I dedicated to Joe which I sang in front of his friends and family. A charity football match was put on for him, raising money for the RNLI where I won two bottles of wine in a raffle, I drank them both as quickly as I could, naturally, turned to my friend and probably slurred something along the lines of “This is the last time I ever drink” That was 12 years ago, I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since. My first ever album I named Freckled Angels in tribute of one of the best people I ever knew. Skip forward some years. I’d been sitting on this song I wrote a few years ago. It always felt a little incomplete. It was going to be my next release, but I was dreading it because of this feeling of incompletion. I decided, very last minute, to do something about it. I sat by my piano, and the rest of the song fell out of me. I hadn’t thought about Joe in a little while, and the song initially wasn’t going to be about him, but the words all fell out of me. I wrote and recorded a whole 2 minutes extra, recording each part as I wrote it. Tears spewing out of my eyes pretty much the whole time, and decided not to do my usual thing of perfecting each line, I just recorded every line as it came. This will be my next release
I Highly, HIGHLY recommend his songs “Losing It” and “The Hunger” but definitely “Losing it” it’s just an all around a fun song with a fisher house party beat, “the hunger” is also awesome but it’s very short.
thats because living with sorrow is exactly like that, one minute your enjoying life and couldnt be happier, then your remember you would be happier if said person was still alive with you, then you fill with regret the sunshine drops to darkness and your miserable, seconds from when you were in glory, when your hurt and hurting its hard to ever enjoy anything, sometimes you have that dream where your with them and everything is amazing and you wake up to lose them all over again, if i had been there if i had done this or that would it have been different...those thoughts never go away
I feel like he was showing how happy he was when his friend was still around and abruptly it changes when Joe leaves. Great reaction Ren is an artist you never now what hes going to do.
I take it that the first "movement" was Ren's struggle with depression and thoughts of self harm. He said it was ready to release but felt unfinished. He wrote the second "movement" in a couple of hours shortly after talking about his friend Joe inspired him to finish the song from that perspective. Ren has a TON of fun stuff too and songs where he's just "flexing". Maybe check out the band he was in, The Big Push, doing "Bongo Bong". Solo, maybe do "Losing It".
The end part of this song wasnt meant to be included, it was Ren in last min making this and putting it as the closure, might be why it may feel a bit diffrent from rest, as its actually 2 seperate productions, and Ren just wanted to add this end part.. you might would like to see Ren more just doing music, with the Big Push, and a bit of reggae vibe.. I shoot the sheriff live could be good. i also think this one show how skilled Ren is and how versitale he is..
I'm empathetic and depending on my mood is where i gravitate with Ren's catalog. For fun and upbeat it's: Illest of Our Time, The Hunger, Genesis, Power, Love Music parts 1 thru 4, Losing it, Down on the Beat, What You Want, etc. For storytelling it's the trilogy (Jenny, Screech, and Violet's Tales.) Anger at the state of society it's Sick Boi and Money Game parts 1 and 2 (these are more political). Sad it's How To Be Me, Chalk Outlines, Su!cide, For Joe. There are so many more songs that I can't list them all. And then there are the live versions of a bunch of his songs that are different from the originals like Murderer, Genesis, Chalk Outlines, How To Be Me...... maybe try one of the upbeat songs? If you like EDM type music then Down on the Beat ft Viktus or Losing It. I'm sure other people will chime in with their faves. Both of those make me laugh when i listen to them.
I second Children of the Moon.. it's quirky and I haven't seen as many reactions to it. Bongo bong is a cover that he does with the big push or power- me and my 5 year old dance to those in the morning to wake up.. even though power I have to bleep a couple words out which he finds hilarious
It is about his struggles with life, sadness the issues he's had to deal with in himself and his past, in the end about losing his best friend, who jumped off a bridge when he was 19, it's his outlet for dealing with his pain, don't give up on Ren, he has the biggest heart of anyone i know, if you want fun Ren, listen to his new song Down on the Beat, or Power, Losing It (the fisher remix), What You Want, which is such a fun throwback to earlier rap, he has alot of great upbeat content but you need to look ...
Happy song: Humble, Loosing It, Love Music Part 1 2 3 and 4, Bongo Bong (The Big Push), Englishman in New York (The Big Push) , the list goes on and on and on and......
Great reaction. Ren is also part of a band called The Big Push. They're a huge change of pace and shows his versatility. 9mill views on 'i shot the sheriff'.
Keep the faith with Ren, there are so many amazing performance ( Penitence Ren with Molly McKenna is my current favourite ) You seriously need to do The Big Push " Bongo Bong " the band Ren is in , that will really lift your spirits.
His latest couple are great palate cleansers for some fun fluff. Great songs, "Love Music part 4" and "Down on the Beat". Catchy, fun tunes just having a great time.
Love your reactions Victoria, thanks. Please carry on with the Ren reactions but maybe have a break from the more heavy subjects. There’s loads of suggestions in these comments so looking forward to watching more reactions in the future 😊
´ve watched so many reacts to this... listen and watchin yours.. is new., in the beginnin´ya was courious, in tha middle you smiled and seem comfortable and I thought... whats wrong with this girl?... and in the end ya understiood and I saw it. Ya´re a great human being. Being able to feel and show. Don´t ever hide. My colour was red, is now white, in my mind will ever be red, but green is ok.🤫🤗
Follow up with "For Joe", the continuation and closure. After it check out some of the lastest released from Ren. He releases for the next few weeks weekly Thursday's Rap and Hip Hop songs, culminating in "Money Game Part 3" on 12-Oct followed by the release of his next album "Sick Boi", available for pre-order, on 13-Oct. The latest songs have a very different vibe. You never know what you get with Ren, every song is impressive, some more, some less, nevertheless. Listen to "Fire", "Humble", "Ocean", "Life is Funny Sometimes", "Losing It (Fisher [EDM] Rap retake)", the various "Love Music" parts", or some of the latest the rap titles for something more uplifting.
The following is For Joe, sad but this time with a conclusion, the cycle of greive is complete and Ren tell what came out of the loste for him, moving this time in a more calm place inside...
It is not that his emotions are chaotic, all deep emotions are. 😊 If you are only happy or only sad, you misunderstand life. It is always both-good and bad, meaninful and meaningless, possitive and negative. This is just nature of things.
If you want his fun uplifting songs try “The Hunger”, “What you Want” and “Down on the Beat”. Also highly recommend “I Shot The Sheriff/ Road to Zion/ Hip Hop” live performed mashup by his band “The Big Push”
Try “love music part one part two part three part four “ are fun, not about actual love, but love for the music. Also “down on the beat” is his newest one and it is upbeat.
You should really listen to the songs he's done together with Chinchilla. You should also listen to Chinchilla - Little Girl Gone if you haven't. Chinchilla is her own beast. If you want something more uplifting you can always listen to Rens "hunger", "losing it", any of his busking with his former band Big push, "what you want" or maybe even something old like "Lost boy" or "The Mash Up" that he did with his then band Trick the fox. Something mean you can go with something like "animal flow", "illest of our time". You can't really go wrong with whatever Ren you do.
The Hunger or Genisis... happy songs, Down On The Beat or Animal Flow... fun & clever songs, The Tale Of Screech & Jenny (full-length version)... epic amazingness & emotional destroyer songs 😎🤘 Respect & Peace ☘
This one hits me so damn hard - one of my friends jumped and I was less than a block away, heard the sirens, found out someone was trying to talk him down, if I'd gotten out of bed I might have been able to stop it... Now he has a lot of songs that are just fun! Down on the beat is awesome from that perspective
"Does he have any happy songs?" 🤣 "The Hunger", "What You Want", "An English Man In New York" (with the band The Big Push). That'll get you started. You're welcome. 😄
For Ren, his music is his therapy. He was seriously a mess due to his friend's suicide, who called him just minutes before jumping. Several of his songs address this traumatic event in his life. Other's allow him to vent or express the different faucets of his personality. Despite everything he has been through, he has turned into a much better person than the chapters of his life. To give you an example: You've heard artists diss each other on RUclips, right? Well, Ren was dissed by a rapper called King Dotta. I have enclosed a link of Ren's response, store it for a future reaction. It's rather funny and enlightening to see how he handles the diss. ruclips.net/video/gcVUnFisx_Q/видео.html
If you want happy songs with no baggage, its hard to go wrong with the Love Music series. They are as the titles suggest love songs to music itself- crossing genres and pop culture influences that Ren is interested in together in some really inspired ways. Nothing sad there, I promise.
I wrote this little bit of poetry after watching the original video. I was afraid to click. I wasn't sure I was ready for the heart squeeze. My concern for my own comfort is an insult to the pain. The pain in life doesn't care if I am ready. It doesn't hurt if you don't love. Love all the way and let it hurt knowing it comes from love.
Confused? Makes sense. Without really knowing his whole story and only seeing a few songs. It would be impossible to get it completely. React to his band The Big Push "Sweet Little Lady". You'll be even more confused. But in a good way!!!! HAHA!!!!
Actually, he made the top in UK with his song Sick Boi :) A couple songs you should be able to just listen to and like, are The Hunger and Losing It... Money Game is a good one, but it's a bit darker :)
He has so many good fricken songs. Some that do match how i used to feel and the things ive dealt with mentally with depression and suicidal thoughts. This song (the first part anyways) matches how ive felt and do feel with having gone through that and not acted on it. The second part is a reminder to why i havent acted on it and wont. Its a reminder of the pain that ill leave behind after acting on it. Having left my mother, my friends, my brother and his friends (which are practically extra older brothers since theyve been there throughout my life), my sister and my brother in law along with my two little nephews and neice on the way who if i left would not have another uncle there to watch them grow up to become wonderful grown adults and help them along the journey. Its a reminder to live for them. Yeah i do still suffer depression and at times it can be bad and i can have thoughts but ive learned to cope and remind myself why i need to live. This song helps remind me of that reason. I do also reach out to friends when it gets bad and talk to them. But it's this exact reason why i myself have sought a career at a mental hospital. Because i get to help people who are struggling with their own problems. I can help these people who struggle from everyhtinf from psychosis such as ren has struggle with. To DID, Borderline, pschitzophrenia, and tons of other things. Occasionally we do get some people sent here that shouldnt be here where its just a simple case of depression and i can sit and talk with them and help them whils they're here before being sent to the correct inpatient facility. Its just incredible and i love what i get to do. Rens music i know helps me and helps alot of people with their powerful messages. I recommend his music to everyone.
To really get the most out of his music you really should watch an interview or two by him, and yes this song was about his friend, he got a call from someone saying his friend was standing on the edge of a bridge and he ran there to pull him off but by the time he got there it was too late. Once again I HIGHLY recommend watching some interviews from him, it’ll make his songs make way more sense.
A big treasure trove of fun Ren related songs are any from The Big Push, the band Ren was in. A lot of covers but some amazing originals as well. Ren sings on many of them but is not the only vocalist for The Big Push.
@sp00kysquirrel Yes this was for his best friend Joe who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge, he has a song called FOR JOE dedicated to his best friend
I like your reaction to this a lot. If you haven't listened to too many ren songs yet, try not to listen to them till you react to them. Cuz I think your audience will enjoy that a lot! Couple suggestions for me would be money game part 1 and 2, for Joe, and the tales of Jenny and screech full version.
Yeah this song was about his friend Joe who took his own life, there is a follow up of this song called For Joe, check it out if you haven't. Also Ren dropped a new song called down on the beat, that one is a really fun banger of a song.
Yes, this is about his friend Joe, and his own thoughts on the subject. Ren had contemplated it, but can't go there; he knows how it impacts everyone around you, and he couldn't do that to his friends and family. The lasts part of this makes me tear up every time. Other songs regarding Joe are Freckled Angels, How To Be Me (With Chinchilla) and For Joe. I'd stock up on tissues before doing "For Joe". He has plenty of happy songs, What You Want, Losin' It (Fisher Rap Retake), Love Music (All 4 parts, no order required) and Down On The Beat might be worth looking into.
I recommend What You Want for a catchy/ happy song with a Beastie Boys vibe… Ren does loads of genres including rap, reggae, indie rock and “bard core” etc so they’re not all really dark and deep like the ones you’ve reacted to… his latest song Down On The Beat is a sort of house music vibe so upbeat as well. Ren has a song for every mood!
What You Want. Losing it. Genesis. Hunger. Murderer. Five Ren songs/retakes which are away from the tone of his more introspective ones. Animal Flow is weird but fun, especially the live video version. Lyrical and beautiful, though not super happy**... How Be Me, Chalk Outlines, Crutch (with Chinchilla, Chinchilla and Bibi respectively). **Tragic in parts. Money Game, Money Game 2 are interesting songs with a criticism of modern society's disfunctions with money. He did a ton of busking with The Big Push, and with Chinchilla, and some of that is on video on his page... that tends to be fun, rather than reflective - lots of covers and mash-ups.
Joe Hughes took his own life at the age of 19, jumping off the Menai Bridge in Wales, around 3.00 a.m. on 28th December 2010. Ren was running to the bridge to try and stop him but arrived a couple of minutes too late. Ren wrote the song Freckled Angels about him and dedicated the album of the same name to him. He wrote For Joe more recently (after the Suicide track) - he went back to Wales for the first time in years and played the song to Joe's parents. He also raised £21,000 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution ( a voluntary search and rescue organisation who searched for Joe's body, but never found it)
Mate, stop with the fake-ass @ren know it all. Ren is my boy and half the stuff you spout isn't actually how it went down.
I also live on Anglesey and remember when joe went missing it is always sad when someone is lost this way. I really feel ren needs his friends to help him through this. I too lost my best friend but our group also fractured we do tho get together on his birthday and anniversary of his death to share funny memories of him and try to laugh instead of cry
The first part was a stand alone song, from Ren's own perspective, and was ready for release. Ren had always felt that the song sounded incomplete. Shortly before it was due to be released he did an interview with Knox Hill in which he talked about the death of his friend Joe Hughes. Immediately after the interview he wrote and recorded the second part of the song (about Joe's death). So the first part is from the perspective of someone who has contemplated suicide but who decided not act on it. The second part is from the perspective of the personal impact a suicide has on those left behind. The tune did change abruptly but the themes kinda tie together.
First part: "It never really felt like the right time". From that same interview, Ren said that the first part was his usual work's quality; but that second part were the unaltered thoughts of a single night, and he deliberately left it just as it came and as he had recorded it on the spot.
It has this dynamic of the first half uplifting you, wanting to sing along to the chorus of "Su¡c:de, su¡c:de su¡c:de su¡c:de!". Then the second part cashes in your empathy with the crying face of Ren and tears you all down. "For Joe" is different, as it starts off with the second half, but already sounds uplifting, and what follows is a poem, and the song "Freckled Angels", but not sung but recited as a poem. "Freckled Angels" is a 13yo song on the same topic, that is already uplifting, and that still works in the recital. It leaves you maybe not actually high, but with lifted spirits.
Incredible he could just do that
Ryan on Ren is true it's Zen
The abrupt change also fits the whole "Memento Mori" of this song. You just don't thing about death until it's too late.
It's a wake up hammer.
Yes people DO die
Yes, that's how life goes... in one moment you are dancing and chilling to a beat... and then someone you love has jumped off a bridge... the shock doesn't happen gently. That's why this sudden change in the song actually works.
REN is so so varied. So many fun songs. Try ‘what you want’ or ‘losing it’
“Losing It” 100% it always puts me in a good mood 😂
This one hits hard for me. Lost my step son ( to this)this past New years day. He woulda been 18 on Feb 2nd. Miss him so much❤. Ren dropped a new one few days ago that fits so well on this roller coaster called DOWN ON THE BEAT . IT'S THE HAPPY ONE YOU'RE LOOKING FOR
If you want happy music from Ren, check out his band The Big Push. Everything they do is so much fun!
Or his song “Losing It” that songs hilarious 😂
That was about his friend Joe, he did a live version of this on piano not long ago, it’s worth a listen. I’m recommending Losing It as a happy song!
Haha yeah “Losing It” always puts me in a good mood, it’s so creative and has that Fisher house party beat. 😂
Yes, it's about the loss of his friend Joe. He has a live performance video called "For Joe" that goes into that.
Hello Victoria, please try STARLIGHT by Oktaf Kanis, goodluck 💕
Can I just say, you are a great reactor , thank you so much mate.
'Murderer' is a lighter listen and the acoustic version is fire asf,he has a lot of fun songs too-Losing it,Fire,love music pt 1-4
Yeay, Victoria already did the "original" Murderer, but with that out of the way, Murderer (live acoustic) is a great one.
Another Ren song that isn’t sad, but is straight 🔥 is The Hunger! It’s next level sick
The only downside is how short it is, if she listens to that one she should also do “Losing It” in the same video.
It's not random.. it's Ren-dom. 😉
Welcome to the British Ren-ascence.👍
The reason it feels like 2 parts is because it literally was Ren did an interview with Knox and after talking he wrote and added the latter part to the track if I'm recalling that correctly, maybe look at some of the busking or live performances he's done
Ren said that, prior to talking with Knox Hill, he hadn't talked about Joe in "a long time." He said that finally talking about it allowed him to finally begin processing and decided to write the 3rd verse because of it. You can tell it's still pretty raw because he breaks down at the end of "For Joe."
Great reaction Victoria! Next please react to "Starlight" by Oktaf Kanis, thank you :)
Yes please! I'm in love with this song 🙌🏻
@@JoshRein9 👍🏻
Play losing it. Happy happy song!
Appreciate your honest reaction. It’s frustrating as I have become a huge fan of Ren - I think he might be the most important thing to happen to music in decades, literally, and I want everyone to love him as much as I do! 😂 It’s his creativity, originality, talent, collabs, rapping, singing, musicianship, ability to adapt to any genre, the fact that he’s come through a living hell of severe illness and managed to get his music out into the world independently. It’s an amazing story and I think if you understand the background properly his deeper songs, like this one, mean a lot more and hit you like a sledgehammer.
But…
YES he DOES have a ton of fun and happy songs too! Please check out the Love Music trilogy, What You Want, Losing It, Murderer, Humble, Ocean, Dominoes (not exactly a fun song but more accessible), Runaway, not to mention any of his stuff with The Big Push, the list goes on and on…
It is the Love Music quadrilogy by now, and you could also count the most recent, Down On The Beat into that ilk. Humble and Ocean are actually not so fun, but also no tragedies. Lighter music, somewhat heavy lyrics.
@@sorenm.lairdsorries7547 Agreed. I overlooked LM Pt 4 but it’s not so much an upbeat number is it? And I think with Humble etc, it’s more that they’re the kind of songs you can playlist and revisit and have on in the background, which I think is what Spooky is looking to find. Maybe.
The first part was about what it feels like to be suicidal yourself; the second part is how his friend's suicide made him feel -
6:15 That's how depression is. You could be happy one moment, then later you're not.
Great reaction @spookysquirrel ! This has a kind of sequel that is much more uplifting: "For Joe". Dropped just a week after Su¡c:de. You might just get allright again after that one.
Happy songs? Lots actually. All 4 "Love Music Pt." 1♥, 2♥, 3♥ & 4♥songs, the most recent "Down On The Beat", the already mentioned bash¡t cracy "Losing It!", "The Big Push - Why My Woman?" (n.b. the "WHY" - not Oh!), "Ren & Sam - Blind Eyed Ft. Angry Car Park Attendant" (sad lyrics, hilarious video) and more. Thank you! 💟
The catchy beat supports the lamentation of the chorus - Oh I, oh I, oh I - such a grievous beauty, the soft sad keening of mourning, very Celtic -- and the references to hanging out on railroad tracks at night, that's both ideation and rehearsal - and the circling obsessive quality, the monotony of depression, the contemplation of nothingness - what is it like to die, what does it mean - and when a loved one turns his back on the world and checks out, a survivor feels rejected and also guilty - couldn't we have been more loving, more loveable? The awareness is both intolerable and unavoidable. And then, one may feel like following the lost soul over the edge, in an act of loyalty and hopeless love. The only thing to think is that the child within you doesn't deserve to go out this way - so be kind to yourself, seek comfort from others.
Try What You Want, Losing It and Down on The Beat for non-sad songs
(Request) Starlight by Oktaf Kanis, thank you! 🔥
Yes! I love this song 🙌🏻
@@mandyrhee yup! 🔥
Ren happy/fun songs: "What you want", "Losing it", "the 90s", "The hunger", "love music", "power" and probably a bunch I don´t remember the name of right now.
If you want some ear candy, you should listen to his "Love Music, Part 3".
Today I want to write something beautiful and eloquent but I’ve been staring at my computer screen for the past 10 minutes blankly. So I’ll just write.
Today, the 1st of June is my friend Joe’s birthday.
I first met Joe when I was 8 years old, my friend Josh said I had to meet this guy, so we both walked over to his, it took about 10 minutes from my house. I was greeted by this kid covered head to toe in freckles, he grinned at us, climbed onto the back of his sofa and screamed “Swanton Bomb!” then front flipped off the top and landed right onto his back on a stone floor. He lay still for a moment, twitched a few times, then got up, grinned at us, brushed himself off, and did it again.
This was Joe. He’d do anything to make people laugh. He ended up becoming one of my best friends. He was there when we stole our first cigarettes out of his mums pack, way too young. He was there when I had my first kiss, with a girl twice my size on the back of the 42 bus. He was there when I first got so drunk I threw up in the woods after drinking as much white lightning Cider as we could. I was there when he did his first backflip on skates, and saw him do a 720 off of the pier cave, that moment became legendary.
Joe was the funny one in our friend group, he’d make us laugh till it hurt. No one had a bad word to say about him. It was impossible not to like him. Usually we put celebrities, athletes and actors on pedestals, turn them into role models and admire them from a far. The person I admired was Joe.
Him and Sagar knew every word to the songs id write, we’d get drunk at parties and they’d be singing along as loud as they could. It gave me a lot of confidence back then.
On Christmas Eve 2010 I was sitting in a pub with Joe, he’d been feeling low after a couple of consecutive break ups. He tried to check himself into a mental health outpatient facility a few weeks earlier but they turned him away because he didn’t have an appointment. He turned to me and said that sometimes he wished he could just walk into the sea and keep walking. He said it in a kind of half joking throw away comment type of way, then took a sip of his drink, walked over to the juke box and put Dig by Incubus on. If I knew that was the last time I’d see Joe id have hugged him, told him how much I loved him, how much I looked up to him, how much we all loved him, and I wouldn’t have left that pub. I didn’t know that, so I finished my drink, said happy Christmas and left.
Two nights after Christmas I got woken up by a phone call at 3am, it was my friend Ella. She told me Joe was on the Menai Bridge, a large suspension bridge connecting the main land to the isle of Anglesey where we lived. He’d been on the phone to her in tears saying goodbye. He told her to tell everyone he loved them. I pulled on my clothes as fast as I could and started running toward the bridge. It was up a hill. I lived about a ten minute walk away, I could run it in five. As I ran I started dialling then redialing his number. The line was busy, which was a good sign, it meant he was still on the phone to someone. As I got about halfway, the busy tone changed. It told me the line was out of service. I got a sinking feeling and picked up my speed. I arrived to the bridge minutes after I left my house. It was deafeningly quiet. I was the first person to arrive. I got there probably about 2 minutes too late.
Joe’s body was never found.
Initially we refused to believe he was gone. The coastguard came out that night, with boats, and helicopters. Me and my friends spent the next 10 days putting up missing posters everywhere we could, walking up and down beaches with flashlights, getting about 3 hours sleep a night. When you’re walking up and down a beach with a torch when its dark everything looks like a body. We still haven’t found Joe.
As his birthday came around, I wrote a song, freckled angels, a song I dedicated to Joe which I sang in front of his friends and family. A charity football match was put on for him, raising money for the RNLI where I won two bottles of wine in a raffle, I drank them both as quickly as I could, naturally, turned to my friend and probably slurred something along the lines of “This is the last time I ever drink” That was 12 years ago, I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since.
My first ever album I named Freckled Angels in tribute of one of the best people I ever knew.
Skip forward some years. I’d been sitting on this song I wrote a few years ago. It always felt a little incomplete. It was going to be my next release, but I was dreading it because of this feeling of incompletion. I decided, very last minute, to do something about it. I sat by my piano, and the rest of the song fell out of me. I hadn’t thought about Joe in a little while, and the song initially wasn’t going to be about him, but the words all fell out of me. I wrote and recorded a whole 2 minutes extra, recording each part as I wrote it. Tears spewing out of my eyes pretty much the whole time, and decided not to do my usual thing of perfecting each line, I just recorded every line as it came. This will be my next release
I Highly, HIGHLY recommend his songs “Losing It” and “The Hunger” but definitely “Losing it” it’s just an all around a fun song with a fisher house party beat, “the hunger” is also awesome but it’s very short.
thats because living with sorrow is exactly like that, one minute your enjoying life and couldnt be happier, then your remember you would be happier if said person was still alive with you, then you fill with regret the sunshine drops to darkness and your miserable, seconds from when you were in glory, when your hurt and hurting its hard to ever enjoy anything, sometimes you have that dream where your with them and everything is amazing and you wake up to lose them all over again, if i had been there if i had done this or that would it have been different...those thoughts never go away
I feel like he was showing how happy he was when his friend was still around and abruptly it changes when Joe leaves. Great reaction Ren is an artist you never now what hes going to do.
I take it that the first "movement" was Ren's struggle with depression and thoughts of self harm. He said it was ready to release but felt unfinished. He wrote the second "movement" in a couple of hours shortly after talking about his friend Joe inspired him to finish the song from that perspective.
Ren has a TON of fun stuff too and songs where he's just "flexing". Maybe check out the band he was in, The Big Push, doing "Bongo Bong". Solo, maybe do "Losing It".
You have to check out Losin It, and The Hunger absolute 🔥 plus just some good jams without the sad stuff
The end part of this song wasnt meant to be included, it was Ren in last min making this and putting it as the closure, might be why it may feel a bit diffrent from rest, as its actually 2 seperate productions, and Ren just wanted to add this end part..
you might would like to see Ren more just doing music, with the Big Push, and a bit of reggae vibe.. I shoot the sheriff live could be good. i also think this one show how skilled Ren is and how versitale he is..
Love music part 1-4 are all happy music
I'm empathetic and depending on my mood is where i gravitate with Ren's catalog. For fun and upbeat it's: Illest of Our Time, The Hunger, Genesis, Power, Love Music parts 1 thru 4, Losing it, Down on the Beat, What You Want, etc. For storytelling it's the trilogy (Jenny, Screech, and Violet's Tales.) Anger at the state of society it's Sick Boi and Money Game parts 1 and 2 (these are more political). Sad it's How To Be Me, Chalk Outlines, Su!cide, For Joe. There are so many more songs that I can't list them all. And then there are the live versions of a bunch of his songs that are different from the originals like Murderer, Genesis, Chalk Outlines, How To Be Me...... maybe try one of the upbeat songs? If you like EDM type music then Down on the Beat ft Viktus or Losing It. I'm sure other people will chime in with their faves. Both of those make me laugh when i listen to them.
Check out Ren's track Children of the Moon, it's got a scary movie vibe.
I second Children of the Moon.. it's quirky and I haven't seen as many reactions to it. Bongo bong is a cover that he does with the big push or power- me and my 5 year old dance to those in the morning to wake up.. even though power I have to bleep a couple words out which he finds hilarious
@shannonriley8837 my daughter is 8 and also loves Power on repeat in the car along with singing Blind eyed 🗣🎶 her name is Riley..small world to funny
When you said "random" it sounded like "It's so ren-dom" and that word slaps!
Hi Victoria, please react to Oktaf Kanis song "Starlight", thank you :)
Starlight! I never get bored with this song!
It is about his struggles with life, sadness the issues he's had to deal with in himself and his past, in the end about losing his best friend, who jumped off a bridge when he was 19, it's his outlet for dealing with his pain, don't give up on Ren, he has the biggest heart of anyone i know, if you want fun Ren, listen to his new song Down on the Beat, or Power, Losing It (the fisher remix), What You Want, which is such a fun throwback to earlier rap, he has alot of great upbeat content but you need to look ...
I second everyone saying to listen to Losing It. It’s a fun, upbeat song!
Happy song: Humble, Loosing It, Love Music Part 1 2 3 and 4, Bongo Bong (The Big Push), Englishman in New York (The Big Push) , the list goes on and on and on and......
Great reaction. Ren is also part of a band called The Big Push. They're a huge change of pace and shows his versatility. 9mill views on 'i shot the sheriff'.
Bongo Bong is friends doing a rooftop picnic jam session. Joy.
victoria every single time i watch this song i tear up at the end.
Ok Ren fans help this gal out with a happy play list...lol!
Keep the faith with Ren, there are so many amazing performance ( Penitence Ren with Molly McKenna is my current favourite ) You seriously need to do The Big Push " Bongo Bong " the band Ren is in , that will really lift your spirits.
I’m a BIG fan of your new staff uniform!
His latest couple are great palate cleansers for some fun fluff. Great songs, "Love Music part 4" and "Down on the Beat". Catchy, fun tunes just having a great time.
Ren a amazing Artist, and a really good person! Glad your getting into it! share with your friends! We need more music thats raw and blunt 💜
Anyone that doesnt shed a tear to this song, has a cold heart....the end.
Love your reactions Victoria, thanks. Please carry on with the Ren reactions but maybe have a break from the more heavy subjects. There’s loads of suggestions in these comments so looking forward to watching more reactions in the future 😊
´ve watched so many reacts to this... listen and watchin yours.. is new., in the beginnin´ya was courious, in tha middle you smiled and seem comfortable and I thought... whats wrong with this girl?... and in the end ya understiood and I saw it. Ya´re a great human being. Being able to feel and show. Don´t ever hide.
My colour was red, is now white, in my mind will ever be red, but green is ok.🤫🤗
Welcome to the Ren rollercoaster!
by the way! first souunds in 20 years that makes me feel! so good
❤❤❤❤
Follow up with "For Joe", the continuation and closure.
After it check out some of the lastest released from Ren. He releases for the next few weeks weekly Thursday's Rap and Hip Hop songs, culminating in "Money Game Part 3" on 12-Oct followed by the release of his next album "Sick Boi", available for pre-order, on 13-Oct.
The latest songs have a very different vibe. You never know what you get with Ren, every song is impressive, some more, some less, nevertheless.
Listen to "Fire", "Humble", "Ocean", "Life is Funny Sometimes", "Losing It (Fisher [EDM] Rap retake)", the various "Love Music" parts", or some of the latest the rap titles for something more uplifting.
The ending wasn't originally going to be a part of the song and video.. Yes, it was about Joe at the end.
The following is For Joe, sad but this time with a conclusion, the cycle of greive is complete and Ren tell what came out of the loste for him, moving this time in a more calm place inside...
Yes, listen to “what you want” that’s a fun happy song
Try,” losing it”, and “what you want.”
Expect the unexpected. Go down the rabbit hole.
It is not that his emotions are chaotic, all deep emotions are. 😊 If you are only happy or only sad, you misunderstand life. It is always both-good and bad, meaninful and meaningless, possitive and negative. This is just nature of things.
If you want his fun uplifting songs try “The Hunger”, “What you Want” and “Down on the Beat”. Also highly recommend “I Shot The Sheriff/ Road to Zion/ Hip Hop” live performed mashup by his band “The Big Push”
Try “love music part one part two part three part four “ are fun, not about actual love, but love for the music. Also “down on the beat” is his newest one and it is upbeat.
Ren❤😢😢😢
Ren for the love of music is definitely just fun love of music 1 2 3 and 4 all are mostly just fun
You might enjoy "Crucify Your Culture." It has a more rock vibe to it and has a slight Rage Against the Machine edge.
it's quite simple really... Ren = Legend 😎🤘
Respect & Peace ☘
You should really listen to the songs he's done together with Chinchilla. You should also listen to Chinchilla - Little Girl Gone if you haven't. Chinchilla is her own beast.
If you want something more uplifting you can always listen to Rens "hunger", "losing it", any of his busking with his former band Big push, "what you want" or maybe even something old like "Lost boy" or "The Mash Up" that he did with his then band Trick the fox. Something mean you can go with something like "animal flow", "illest of our time".
You can't really go wrong with whatever Ren you do.
The Hunger or Genisis... happy songs, Down On The Beat or Animal Flow... fun & clever songs, The Tale Of Screech & Jenny (full-length version)... epic amazingness & emotional destroyer songs 😎🤘
Respect & Peace ☘
This one hits me so damn hard - one of my friends jumped and I was less than a block away, heard the sirens, found out someone was trying to talk him down, if I'd gotten out of bed I might have been able to stop it... Now he has a lot of songs that are just fun! Down on the beat is awesome from that perspective
"Does he have any happy songs?" 🤣
"The Hunger", "What You Want", "An English Man In New York" (with the band The Big Push).
That'll get you started.
You're welcome. 😄
He is a amazing entertainer. I am a empathetic person so it is rough but in a good way. I enjoy watching your reaction. Looking amazing as always.
In what way is it all over the place or a rollercoaster lol. was the first half happy somehow and i didnt notice?
the end is about his friend first part about him self
animal flow and his new one down on the beat are what you are looking for in terms of "happy" or more upbeat less depressing
throwing the phone got me 🤣🤣🤣 not to today phone 😌👌
If you want a chill vibe song, go for losing it, animal flow, illest of our times. Thanks for the video.
He has "happy songs"! Listen to "loosing it" or "the hunger"
Chalk Outlines and How to Be Me would be more of the speed of a daily listen vibe. The live versions with Chinchilla are unbelievable.
For Ren, his music is his therapy. He was seriously a mess due to his friend's suicide, who called him just minutes before jumping. Several of his songs address this traumatic event in his life. Other's allow him to vent or express the different faucets of his personality. Despite everything he has been through, he has turned into a much better person than the chapters of his life. To give you an example: You've heard artists diss each other on RUclips, right? Well, Ren was dissed by a rapper called King Dotta. I have enclosed a link of Ren's response, store it for a future reaction. It's rather funny and enlightening to see how he handles the diss.
ruclips.net/video/gcVUnFisx_Q/видео.html
If you want happy songs with no baggage, its hard to go wrong with the Love Music series. They are as the titles suggest love songs to music itself- crossing genres and pop culture influences that Ren is interested in together in some really inspired ways. Nothing sad there, I promise.
I wrote this little bit of poetry after watching the original video.
I was afraid to click.
I wasn't sure I was ready for the heart squeeze.
My concern for my own comfort is an insult to the pain.
The pain in life doesn't care if I am ready.
It doesn't hurt if you don't love.
Love all the way and let it hurt knowing it comes from love.
LESSS GOOO
Confused? Makes sense. Without really knowing his whole story and only seeing a few songs. It would be impossible to get it completely.
React to his band The Big Push "Sweet Little Lady". You'll be even more confused. But in a good way!!!! HAHA!!!!
Ren is amazing and can make the most beautiful and the most hype music I love this guy he’s the best artist in the world right now!!
Actually, he made the top in UK with his song Sick Boi :) A couple songs you should be able to just listen to and like, are The Hunger and Losing It... Money Game is a good one, but it's a bit darker :)
He has so many good fricken songs. Some that do match how i used to feel and the things ive dealt with mentally with depression and suicidal thoughts. This song (the first part anyways) matches how ive felt and do feel with having gone through that and not acted on it. The second part is a reminder to why i havent acted on it and wont. Its a reminder of the pain that ill leave behind after acting on it. Having left my mother, my friends, my brother and his friends (which are practically extra older brothers since theyve been there throughout my life), my sister and my brother in law along with my two little nephews and neice on the way who if i left would not have another uncle there to watch them grow up to become wonderful grown adults and help them along the journey. Its a reminder to live for them. Yeah i do still suffer depression and at times it can be bad and i can have thoughts but ive learned to cope and remind myself why i need to live. This song helps remind me of that reason. I do also reach out to friends when it gets bad and talk to them. But it's this exact reason why i myself have sought a career at a mental hospital. Because i get to help people who are struggling with their own problems. I can help these people who struggle from everyhtinf from psychosis such as ren has struggle with. To DID, Borderline, pschitzophrenia, and tons of other things. Occasionally we do get some people sent here that shouldnt be here where its just a simple case of depression and i can sit and talk with them and help them whils they're here before being sent to the correct inpatient facility. Its just incredible and i love what i get to do. Rens music i know helps me and helps alot of people with their powerful messages. I recommend his music to everyone.
It's just accurate. All I could think about was a very close friend that I lost.
If you want a fun song of Ren’s, check out Losing It Fischer Rap Retake.
If you want to see a kind of continuation of the last part of the song then check out “for joe” it starts with the end of this song
To really get the most out of his music you really should watch an interview or two by him, and yes this song was about his friend, he got a call from someone saying his friend was standing on the edge of a bridge and he ran there to pull him off but by the time he got there it was too late. Once again I HIGHLY recommend watching some interviews from him, it’ll make his songs make way more sense.
A big treasure trove of fun Ren related songs are any from The Big Push, the band Ren was in. A lot of covers but some amazing originals as well. Ren sings on many of them but is not the only vocalist for The Big Push.
follow up song on this! for joe! he also post why he wrote these 2 songs!
@sp00kysquirrel Yes this was for his best friend Joe who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge, he has a song called FOR JOE dedicated to his best friend
I like your reaction to this a lot. If you haven't listened to too many ren songs yet, try not to listen to them till you react to them. Cuz I think your audience will enjoy that a lot! Couple suggestions for me would be money game part 1 and 2, for Joe, and the tales of Jenny and screech full version.
Yeah this song was about his friend Joe who took his own life, there is a follow up of this song called For Joe, check it out if you haven't. Also Ren dropped a new song called down on the beat, that one is a really fun banger of a song.
Yes, this is about his friend Joe, and his own thoughts on the subject. Ren had contemplated it, but can't go there; he knows how it impacts everyone around you, and he couldn't do that to his friends and family. The lasts part of this makes me tear up every time.
Other songs regarding Joe are Freckled Angels, How To Be Me (With Chinchilla) and For Joe. I'd stock up on tissues before doing "For Joe".
He has plenty of happy songs, What You Want, Losin' It (Fisher Rap Retake), Love Music (All 4 parts, no order required) and Down On The Beat might be worth looking into.
I recommend What You Want for a catchy/ happy song with a Beastie Boys vibe… Ren does loads of genres including rap, reggae, indie rock and “bard core” etc so they’re not all really dark and deep like the ones you’ve reacted to… his latest song Down On The Beat is a sort of house music vibe so upbeat as well. Ren has a song for every mood!
Please do For Joe next.
This one is a song of pain.
The other is one of HEALING.
What You Want. Losing it. Genesis. Hunger. Murderer. Five Ren songs/retakes which are away from the tone of his more introspective ones. Animal Flow is weird but fun, especially the live video version.
Lyrical and beautiful, though not super happy**... How Be Me, Chalk Outlines, Crutch (with Chinchilla, Chinchilla and Bibi respectively). **Tragic in parts.
Money Game, Money Game 2 are interesting songs with a criticism of modern society's disfunctions with money.
He did a ton of busking with The Big Push, and with Chinchilla, and some of that is on video on his page... that tends to be fun, rather than reflective - lots of covers and mash-ups.