Hi everyone! We’re a little behind on Rena’s Radio (due to life and spring break that didn’t feel like a break at all honestly), so there will be two Rena’s Radio articles this week! I know, I know, it’s so incredible, please contain all screams of excitement until the end. So I’m starting with the week of 3/15-3/21 and then I’ll do 3/22-3/28 by the end of the week. So let’s get into it, shall we?

Rena’s Radio (3/15-3/21):

Sunday (3/15): “Comfortable Liar” by Chevelle
The intro to “Comfortable Liar” is genuinely one of my favorite intros of all time. The distortion of the electric guitar before immediately slamming into the heavy drums and guitar that carry through most of the song is amazing, and it sets the tone for most of the song, minus the slower sections that pick right back up into the tempo from the beginning.

I first heard “Comfortable Liar” in high school and completely forgot it existed until I ran across it on an old playlist, and immediately knew it had a place in our playlist.

Favorite lyric: “Time spent waiting offshore/the calm before the storm.” (This is extremely ironic because this truly was the calm before the storm this week.)

Monday (3/16): “Cut Here” by The Cure
Okay, I know we’re already aware of how much I love The Cure, but here is yet another song from them. I’m sure there will be more before the end of this year. I was actually at work when “Cut Here” played from our playlist, and I was pretty surprised to hear a song from The Cure in a retail setting that wasn’t “Friday I’m in Love.” It made my day, and I desperately needed a few minutes to dance to one of my favorite bands while I folded some clothes.

Favorite lyric: “But chilly, Mr. Dilly, too much rush to talk to Billy/all the tizzy, fizzy idiot things must get done.”

Tuesday (3/17): “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd
I’m not going to lie, I don’t remember much from Tuesday.

I’ve always said I have three brothers, even though I’m only related to one by blood. One of my brothers left us on this day.

“Wish You Were Here” was the first song that came on my shuffle when my phone connected to my car’s Bluetooth after I got the news, and it was so fitting that I just sat and stared at my radio in complete disbelief for the entire song.

Rest in peace, brother. I love you.

Favorite lyric: “How I wish, how I wish you were here/we’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl/year after year.”

Wednesday (3/18): “Snap Out of It” by Arctic Monkeys
Once again, thank you to my work playlist for this addition. “AM” has been one of my favorite albums since I was in middle school, and it’s yet another album I remember exists every few years. I’m obsessed with it, and then I completely forget it until the next time I hear a song from it.

“Snap Out of It” has always been one of my favorite tracks from Arctic Monkeys, and the meaning behind it being about recognizing something in your life that has failed and it’s time to move on, but still feeling stuck in it has always been extremely relatable to me.

Favorite lyric: “Darling, how could you be so blind?”

Thursday (3/19): “Richman” by 3OH!3
Talk about a change in pace from the first half of the week, am I right?

I was pretty young when 3OH!3 released “Want”; I was only 7 when it was released in the summer of ’08. However, when “Richman” went viral a couple of weeks ago, it was like something buried DEEP in my brain woke up instantly because I still knew every single word.

An absolute banger from beginning to end, and I do not care what anyone has to say, but “Want” will forever be one of the best albums to come out of the 2000s.

Favorite lyric: The entire chorus. The whole thing. I cannot and will not pick just one lyric from that chorus.

Friday (3/20): “Hollywood’s Bleeding” by Post Malone
As a former dancer, I can tell you exactly where I was when I heard this song for the first time, and what choreography I put together immediately in my head while I was listening to it.

The fluidity of “Hollywood’s Bleeding” is absolutely insane, starting off slow and melancholy, hitting the hip-hop rhythm in the middle, and combining both in the end. The lyricism is beautiful straight through as well.

This will forever be my favorite Post Malone song, and I will always want to choreograph to this, even three years after I closed the curtain on my dance career.

Favorite lyric: “She gotta check her pulse to tell herself that she okay.”

Saturday (3/21): “What A Fool Believes” by The Doobie Brothers
This will probably be one of the more off-kilter reasons for a song being on Rena’s Radio, I’m not going to lie to y’all.

I was reading different articles that night, and ran across a small article on PBS (linked here) where journalist Jason Fine talked about one of the first times he spoke to Brian Wilson, and Brian told Jason that he had to go only 10 minutes into the interview.

Jason was confused and went looking for him after a while, and when he found Brian, he asked him what was going on. Brian told him that he got scared, and Jason asked him why. Brian said that sometimes things scare him, and when Jason asked him what kind of things, Brian said, “Like ‘What a Fool Believes’, you know, that song by the Doobie Brothers, scares the he** outta me, you know?”

As I was reading it, I raised my eyebrow and played “What A Fool Believes,” and I honestly forgot how much I’ve always enjoyed this song and how much I loved it when I was little. So, that is how “What A Fool Believes” will be closing out this week.

Favorite lyric: “Keeps sending him somewhere back in her long ago/where he can still believe there’s a place in her life.”

Here are the links for the Apple Music and Spotify playlists for Rena’s Radio. See y’all later this week!