Little boy, stupid boy, what you after?

Falling into a musical rabbit hole is nothing short of extraordinary. It has some of that excitement of falling in love, discovering someone and becoming hooked on the way their mind works or how their body moves. Being drawn into the intricacies of this difficult, uneasy thing that is living and how they choose to share it with the world. It also comes with a certain reverence attached, has this tacit understanding that even if someone doesn't know or even like the artist, they will eventually.

I think the last proper music rabbit hole was Ren about three years ago. I hated Ren the first time he was shown to me, I thought he was whiny and lame. A perfect case of not being in the right place to fully appreciate a genius. I came around some months later, and fell way down. Listened to nothing but Ren for months. Understandably so.

And now, again.

I first heard Yungblud perform at the Back to the Beginning Black Sabbath tribute show in July, a phenomenal cover of "Changes". Remember thinking 'wow, he's quite something', but just as quick as he came, he went again from my mind. Then he cropped up again in my feed when he teamed up with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry from Aerosmith, veritable gods of my childhood, for "My Only Angel". Still, I remained a little unconvinced.

Then, at my mum's suggestion, I listened to his latest album, "Idols". And straight down I went, at rocket speed.

Looking (and sounding) like an alien mix between Steven Tyler, Elton John, Mick Jagger, Ozzy Osbourne, Freddie Mercury, and David Bowie, this guy's got rockstar quality sweating out of every pore (and man, what pores...). He's so freakishly mesmerizing, I honestly wonder if he might actually be a hologram, or somehow AI-generated.

I thought the age of rockstars with such magnetism was beyond us. Apparently, we still get lucky now and again.

So tell me are you gonna die with the lies that they force inside your head
Or are you gonna live by the thorns in what you said
Little freak, gonna walk, they don’t talk till youve packed up and gone away
Little boy, stupid boy, what you after, each and every day?

Looking for him in record stores, I never know where to look. This guy is rock, he's pop, he's indie, he's as much love ballad as he is funky edgy rock icon and I think that's quite amazing. Ozzy certainly seemed to think so, and I ain't going to step out of the Prince of Darkness's word when it comes to music.

Listening to this last track in particular got me thinking about the great weight that art has or should have. Because what does a silly little singer matter in a world haunted by such terrors? Well, precisely. I love the way this kind of person can just come along and bring people from all over into one solid army, banking always on the ways in which we're similar rather than the ways in which we drift away from one another.

Tell me what inspires you lately
Maybe I’ll remember you vaguely
Cos they won’t ask if you’re feeling strong enough
Cos they won’t ask, they don’t know what it is that they love
Any more than you do
So don’t be sad

It's needed, every now and again, to take a break from the cohesiveness of your life and who you are as a self-defined identity, more specifically. To start breaking down a human into parts, and realize I'm out here walking, trying to reassess what inspires me, what matters to me, what I struggle with. Or not feeling strong enough. And if it's not a day, and it becomes a month of not being strong enough, then who'll catch you? Maybe not this guy, but maybe knowing that we're not, at the end of ourselves, nearly as strong as the people who don't know us think...maybe that can help.

I couldn't think of anyone better to talk about for this #threetunetuesday, initiated, as ever, by @ablaze.

What are you listening to?