Ren - Caskets ft. Chris Webby | I wasn't ready for the ugly crying! Songwriter Reacts

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:00]I've just watched Caskets by Ren and Chris Webby and have compared it to songs by Pink Floyd, James Blunt, and John Lennon. See if you can guess which ones.

[00:00:11]Hi everyone. Welcome to Listening Color with me, Rachel Walker Mason. Last Thursday when Ren and Chris Webby's new song dropped, I was in London at the Ivor Novello Awards hanging out with Damon Albarn, Shaznay Lewis from All Saints, Phil Selway from Radiohead, James Blunt who has seen my Monsters reaction and loved it.

[00:00:30]The Lottery winners, my lovely friends Sam Fender and Gareth Malone amongst others. So, I'm finally home now and can react to Caskets.

[00:00:46]>> If I don't wake tomorrow morning, [singing] empty shoes on the side of the hall. And if my number is stops calling, picture frames hanging up by the door. You try to re-ride it and hold on to the little things, [music] but they slip away.

[00:01:05]But it's okay cuz I had a hell of a time.

[00:01:13]>> [music] >> Know that I had the time of my life.

[00:01:19]>> [music] >> So, remember [singing] me and smile. All of the souls heading back home down a one-way road. [music] So, it goes until the casket [singing] closes.

[00:01:34]>> Oh, what a line. Every time I hear Ren, I am blown away again. It's He's just the most gifted lyricist.

[00:01:44]That line was just absolute killer. So, it goes till the casket closes. Is it so true? It's like all we've got is the time that we're alive. That is it. Once the casket is closed, it's too late. All the things that we've put off doing, all the things that we thought we might is is gone. And so all you have is the here and now.

[00:02:05]All you have is the here and now, isn't it, Fearo?

[00:02:08]He looks really bothered about it.

[00:02:12]It's just This is such a beautiful beautiful video. It really is. It's just It just captures these beautiful really normal family moments that you can look at a photograph and remember everything about that moment. And there's that beautiful photograph that the old man is looking back at the moment he proposed to his wife.

[00:02:39]And I look at my husband's and and my engagement video that they were in having dinner in my parents' garden today. It's a bank holiday Monday. And that's when my husband proposed to me.

[00:02:50]And it just makes me kind of go oh every time and all those memories come back and what we were wearing and what happened and all the things. It just It stays with you forever just looking at a photograph, just remembering something.

[00:03:03]And it's it's so beautiful. I love how how just normal this video is, but so different from a lot of friends' videos where it's like in in It's just him playing and it's in one shot and it's amazing because it's it's so basic. This is really different and I'm I'm enjoying this. This is um It's It's a really beautiful project.

[00:03:28]Okay.

[00:03:28]I want to go back a little bit and hear that chorus again.

[00:03:33]>> of my life.

[00:03:38]So remember [music and singing] me and smile. All of the souls heading back home down a one-way [singing] road. So [music] it goes until the casket closed.

[00:03:50]>> Beautiful.

[00:03:52]>> And if you that sinking feeling thinking about the time we shared, I hope it helps you with your healing knowing that I wasn't scared. I savored everything. I pressed the world up [music] against my skin. I was lucky, I guess.

[00:04:12]I always found the beauty in the mess.

[00:04:15]You got to hold on to the [music] little things.

[00:04:18]>> Oh my god, that lyric I just just look up the lyrics cuz I love pondering Ren's incredible lyrics. Just He's so gifted. I say this every time, but oh my god, seriously.

[00:04:32]And quite a few have mentioned to me like how is he not won a Grammy yet? And I'm like, I don't know whether he he's actually a Grammy member and puts his stuff forward, but if I can help him do that, then I will because I think he is like the most gifted artist and writer I've heard in 20 years, honestly. Oh, this second verse, "And if you get that sinking feeling thinking about the time we shared, I hope it helps you with your healing know knowing that I wasn't scared.

[00:05:04]Oh, that line. I savored everything. I pressed the world up against my skin.

[00:05:11]I was lucky, I guess. I always found the beauty in the mess.

[00:05:15]I savored everything. I pressed the world up against my skin. That is the most beautiful >> [sighs] >> way of describing how you lived, how someone lived. They really felt it. They really embraced everything rather than just sort of skating through life, but it's just beautiful and it's so real. It's It's not flouncy. It's not kind of showy-offy. Anyone could understand that lyric and it and it hits you. It's like in the the James Blunt Monsters one and it's the one about the the about leaving the light on is there's something so real and normal about it that that hits you in a in a way that we are not expecting it.

[00:05:56]It just hits you really hard right in the center.

[00:06:00]And that's isn't that the loveliest way to experience a lyric that [snorts] you're not you're not even having a build-up of like, "Oh, this is going to make me cry." It just wallops you right in the chest. There's a line in in Pink Floyd's Time which I've reacted to, which is about um "No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun." And so many of us feel like that in life. Suddenly life's gone past us and we were like, "What? I didn't know when to start. I didn't know. One told me. Nobody told me. It was like, "And now you begin and have to crack on and do everything." And and you feel like it's all rushed past you and it's gone. This line here that Ren's saying is is that I felt everything. I I sensed everything. I touched everything. I felt everything. I used all of my senses to really get right up close to life and live it and experience it. And that is such a good way to be. I'm going to be more Ren in my living of life now.

[00:06:58]Get right up close to it. Hold it against my skin.

[00:07:01]>> And I was lucky, I guess.

[00:07:04]I always found the beauty in the mess.

[00:07:07]You got to hold on to the little things, but you got to let go just a little bit.

[00:07:12]When another one goes, one will find their wings. Then they'll [music] find their way home, little take and give.

[00:07:19]Into the unknown and the changing tides, [music] the sun sets low [singing] on an endless sky. So much we don't know. I don't know why.

[00:07:28]But I'll be fine.

[00:07:30]Cuz I had a hell of a time.

[00:07:32]>> [music] >> Know that I had the time of my life.

[00:07:41]>> [music] >> So remember me and smile. All of the souls >> [music] >> heading back home down [singing] a one-way road. So it goes until the [music and singing] casket is closed.

[00:07:58]That is just beautiful and it's but not everything's great. There's moments when they're going through bills and having a hard time that they're struggling in life.

[00:08:07]And that's that's great to reference that as well. It's not just this joyful skip through through life. Like there are some really hard bits. But um one of my favorite lines in any song ever is in Beautiful Boy by John Lennon and I sing that to my son every night. That's his his song. Um and there's a line that's life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

[00:08:29]And that is never a truer word has been spoken. Cuz it is, you have all these big plans in life and then but just the day-to-day, the getting up, going to buy milk from the shop to make make your kids breakfast and paying the bills and and putting the bins out. Those things are life. That is life. Life is made up of these little things that are really ordinary.

[00:08:51]And if you're waiting for life to begin, for the big things to happen, then you're going to be disappointed because actually life is the the small things.

[00:09:02]And if you can embrace those small things and be happy in those small things with the people you have in your life and the situation you're in, then you're going to be you're going to be fine because that is life. And that's I love that this video is so normal. It's just normal people living their lives and being happy in it. It's so beautiful.

[00:09:26]So you've got to hold on to the little things, but you've got to you've got to let go just a bit when another one goes, one will find their wings.

[00:09:35]Then they'll find their way home.

[00:09:38]They'll take and give into the unknown and the changing tides as the sun sets low on an endless sky.

[00:09:44]So much we don't know.

[00:09:45]I don't know why, but I'll be fine.

[00:09:49]And that that is it's like, you know, we lose people throughout our lives, people that we're someone maybe who's older that we kind of less surprised to lose, but some people who are very young in our life, some really sad things can happen.

[00:10:03]Um And we have to learn to kind of to grieve it, but let go a little bit. We can't be heartbroken forever cuz we still have to carry on living our lives.

[00:10:12]We can't be so broken that it stops us continuing. So, learning to kind of let go a little bit and and let there be some freedom in in in that pain and carrying on even though it's hard and even though you miss that person.

[00:10:30]It's just such a beautiful way of putting it.

[00:10:33]It's like, oh, they're just They're so gifted and I love the little trumpet which is the comment. It's just so gentle and kind of mournful but in a really beautiful way. Like, I don't know why that that brass moment works so well rather than like a oboe or guitar, but it just does. It just works.

[00:10:56]Okay.

[00:10:58]Let's continue.

[00:10:59]>> Souls [music] heading back home down [singing] a one-way road, so it goes until the casket's [music] closed.

[00:11:10]Raise a toast as the curtains close and the sunset fades to black.

[00:11:15]>> [music] >> So the story goes, we all walk with ghosts, no one-way tickets back.

[00:11:22]The casualties of our memories that slip right through the cracks are the inside jokes [music and singing] and the times we spoke will stay frozen in the past. You got to hold on to the little [music] things break through the [singing] cracks. So we all walk with Raise a toast as the curtains close and the sunset fades to black.

[00:11:46]>> [music] >> So the story goes, we all walk with ghosts, no one way tickets [singing] back.

[00:11:52]The casualties of our memories that slipped right through the cracks. All the inside jokes and the times we spoke will stay frozen in the past. You got to hold on to the little things, but you got [music] to let go just a little bit.

[00:12:09]I guess we'll never know what tomorrow brings, but just know you're not alone in the thick of it. I know it [music] feels cold when the casket's closed, stories untold on a headstone [music] for those who grow old and a fly by in the blink of an eye.

[00:12:26]So we'll [music] have a hell of a time.

[00:12:32]Know that we'll have the time of our lives.

[00:12:38]>> [music] >> So remember us and smile. All of the souls heading [singing] back [music] home down a one way road, so it goes until the casket's [music] [singing] closed. We'll have a hell of a time.

[00:12:56]Know that we'll [music] have the time of our lives.

[00:13:02]So [music] remember us and smile. All of the souls heading [singing] back home down a one way road, so it goes until the casket's [music] closed.

[00:13:21]>> Oh.

[00:13:23]Well, I thought I was going to get through that whole one without crying.

[00:13:26]I've seen some other reactors crying to it. I didn't listen to the song, but I just saw their reaction. I was like, I'm not going to cry. I don't cry often. I'm on antidepressants, so like I find it very hard to access tears.

[00:13:38]But Ren, ah, it just brings it out of me. That was The whole story of that was so beautiful, like going through their lives.

[00:13:48]But it was that bit at the end where it was people holding up the photo of the person that they miss.

[00:13:57]Or the animal that they miss. And then suddenly it was a baby.

[00:14:02]And that that It was a baby scan. And um And that just it just feels so unfair when it's when it's a baby that someone didn't get to meet.

[00:14:13]And that just pushed me right over the edge. The unfairness of that in life.

[00:14:19]They didn't get to live at all.

[00:14:20]And that just um That was brutal.

[00:14:29]What a song. Congratulations Ren and Chris Webby. You have got another belter.

[00:14:35]And this album is insane. It's like it does so much. Like I've had an like an autism mom moment with this album.

[00:14:43]>> [snorts] >> And and then this, which is all about dealing with with death and living life to the fullest. And then there was another moment which is about the the devil, like trading your soul for music.

[00:14:55]Oh my god, this is like the most incredible journey. I cannot wait for this full album. I cannot wait.

[00:15:03]And color-wise in this one, it's it's a really kind of warm orangey color. And often when I have hear Ren's thing, it's a more of a kind of a gungey green. But the whole feel has the whole song has a kind of throwback feel to kind of like the '70s, '80s. And it just those eras just feel very orange to me and it just that all the music feels like coated in that beautiful um nostalgic fuzzy warmth is beautiful and the whole thing feels like that and then Chris's voice comes in and it's got this kind of bluer edge to it. He just has a like a a very different sound to Ren and it just comes in that's like lovely just adds a different aspect to it on that third verse.

[00:15:54]And it's just it's like a big warm hug but like after you've been to therapy and you've been crying for a while about some really hard stuff. It's like the hug after your therapy session.

[00:16:07]That's what this song feels like to me.

[00:16:10]Working in the music industry as a songwriter is not well paid. So if you would like to support me, you can do so by buying me a coffee or a tea as I say because I'm very British. The link is just here. There's absolutely no obligation to do this. You are welcome to watch my videos for free and not give me anything at all. It's absolutely fine. But if you'd like to I would really appreciate that and I appreciate everyone who already does this. It means so much to me and to my whole family. So thank you.

[00:16:37]Please remember to like, subscribe, share, and comment. I really want to hear your comments about this song. So keep them coming and have a colorful day.

[00:16:47]listening [music] color