This Is NOT What I Thought It Was Going To Be | Ren x Chris Webby - Asylum

I was lying on a sun lounger in Turkey when Ren and Chris Webby dropped Asylum, so I have come to the title track late — and I was not expecting this. After an album this musically intense, Asylum is the gentlest thing on it, and it is the one that stopped me in my tracks. There is an old jazz quality in Ren's voice here that I don't think belongs to this genre at all — a slow, wide vibrato at the end of a line that is pure Ella Fitzgerald or Peggy Lee. And then the lyric turns everything on its head: the teacher doesn't know very much, the sheriff steps outside the law. Nobody is entirely good and nobody is entirely evil. Maybe the whole world is the asylum. But the part I keep coming back to is Chris Webby. As a vocal producer I want to talk about why his voice works on this song, because it isn't a classically pretty voice and that is exactly the point — something about its roughness cuts through in a way a pretty voice never would. He is singing long sustained notes here, really singing through them, in a way he has always shied away from before. I think he believes in his own voice more than he used to, and you can hear it. And the line. "Still we thread hope through the hangman's rope and lose sight of what's lost." Hopeful and devastating in the same breath. I have been writing songs for twenty years and I would love to be a fly on the wall in their writing sessions, because there isn't a single filler line in this — an album of their second-attempt lines would still be better than most albums out right now. Plus the colour report, which surprised me: Ren is usually a very specific gungy green for me, but there is far more gold coming through here than I normally get from him. I think it's the slower vocal lines giving that shimmer more room. Chris Webby is usually an acid orange, and here there's more yellow in it. 10 out of 10 for Asylum. Let me know what you heard in it — I love it when you tell me all about the stuff you know. 🎵 Watch the original: Inpatient (Ren x Chris Webby) — Asylum (Lyric Video)    • Inpatient (Ren x Chris Webby) - Asylum (Ly...   ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Ren & Chris Webby dropped Asylum while I was away 1:28 That old-jazz shimmer in Ren's voice 2:16 "The teacher doesn't know very much" — turning it all on its head 4:18 The whole world as an asylum 7:28 Not a single filler line 8:45 "Thread hope through the hangman's rope" 9:30 Why Chris Webby's voice cuts through 13:15 The hope hiding in the hypocrisy 16:21 Why it stops mid-verse 17:25 The colour report — gold in the green 👤 ABOUT RACHEL BBC-recognised songwriting expert | Grammy voting member | Ivors Academy | Songwriters Hall of Fame executive member | Billboard Top 20 | UK Chart Top 10 | Estill-qualified vocal producer | Synesthete 🎨 I analyse music as someone who makes it for a living — and who experiences it as colour and texture. 💛 I reacted to the other six tracks from Asylum that I hadn't yet heard, exclusively for my Patreon community. You'll find that video here:   / rest-of-asylum-166616637   🎨 Watch every video ad-free and un-obscured on Patreon:   / rachelwalkermason   ☕🫖 Buy me a tea: https://buymeacoffee.com/rachelwalker... 🛍️ Merch — travel mugs, mugs, hats, notebooks and more, all with "have a colourful day": https://listen-in-colour-with-rachel-... 🔔 Subscribe for songwriter reactions, vocal breakdowns and music through a synesthetic lens: https://www.youtube.com/@ListenInColo... You are under no obligation whatsoever to do any of that. You can watch my videos and just enjoy them — that is genuinely all I want. 📱 Instagram:   / rachelwalkermason   📱 TikTok:   / rachelwalkermason   📱 Facebook:   / rachelwalkermason   🛋️ Do you like my sofa? Valencia Home Theatre Seating — the Tuscany Love Seat that finally made my studio comfortable. Quiet enough for recording, USB-A & USB-C ports, full recline, and storage deep enough for a blanket: https://us.valenciatheaterseating.com... Have a colourful day 🎨 #Ren #ChrisWebby #Asylum #Inpatient #RenReaction #SongwriterReacts #MusicReaction #Synesthesia #ListenInColour #VocalAnalysis