Ruben – Burn Down This Room

“I’m fairly sure that’s one of the best ballads I’ve heard in a long time.”

Tim: We first met Ruben a few weeks back as the vocalist on Alan Walker’s last one; now he’s out on his own with this. The video is fairly graphic with bits of self-harm, so you may want to just listen to the song without it, here:

Tim: And I’m fairly sure that’s one of the best ballads I’ve heard in a long time.

Tom: As I listened to the first part of this, I couldn’t figure out why you’d written that. It’s not a patch on Fai Rumore, of course, but yes: it does some good things by the end.

Tim: Starts out fairly quiet with just a bit of piano, but then builds up quickly with drums and strings and all sorts of orchestral majesty, blowing us away by the time the final chorus arrives.

Tom: I reckon it’s one of those tracks where the middle eight might be the strongest point, but yes, that final chorus does hold up.

Tim: On top of all that, he’s got a very strong voice, more than doing justice to the drama in the lyrics, all going together to sound fantastic. Does it need to come with that sort of video? Hmm, probably not, we could maybe do with something lighter right now, but never mind that – it’s the song that’s important, and it’s great.