If you have ever heard the name Jeremy Renner before, you probably have it connected to his character, Hawkeye, in the Marvel franchise or to one of his other famous movie characters. Not only is he an amazing actor, but he is also a releasing artist. Following a near fatal snow plow incident in January of 2023, Renner has been releasing music with a common theme of the accident. His new album “Love and Titanium,” released Jan. 19, is the next set of songs regarding his recovery.
Renner’s album starts out with the song called “Lucky Man.” This song specifically talks about how lucky he feels to have survived what he did. Despite its deeper meaning, the lyrical content is very surface level and it sounds very similar to any other generic rock-country style song. It has very basic chord progressions and the chorus is very repetitive. Despite these shortcomings, the song is held together by Renner’s surprisingly impressive vocals. His deeper, gritty voice fits the style of the music really well and it does a good job of portraying his emotions throughout the song.
His album starts to pick it up a little through the next two songs, “River” and “Wait.” The upbeat energy of “River” and the lyrical content of “Wait” is a massive improvement from the first song. Even though some of these aspects of his music improved, he starts to push his vocals and adds a lot more rasp to his voice than needed. His voice still sounds good, the quality just starts to deteriorate a little from the first song.
The album slows down a little bit with the song “Love and Titanium.” In this song, he really starts to lay into the grit and rasp of his voice during the chorus of the song. I think his raspy voice definitely fits this song better than the last two, but he is still pushing it a little too much. With that being said, this song has a much catchier chorus than any of the songs so far and is definitely one of the more well-written songs musically. It is definitely a contender for my favorite.
Renner takes it down even more and pulls out a piano ballad with the song “Garden of Stone.” He actually leans out of the unnecessary grit of his voice, proving that he doesn’t need that to sing, and shows off the natural tone of his voice. I like this a lot more and I think it fits the style of a ballad much better than the raspy voice would have. “Garden of Stone” is the other song in contention for my favorite, as it has a very different vibe from the rest of the album and is still one of the best written songs lyrically and musically.
Both of the next two songs, “Lonesome Road” and “Survivor,” kind of blend together into the background of the album. You can tell that Renner was trying to go for a rock anthem style song, but just pumped out two more generic, rock-country-esque songs. If I walked into a gas station or convenience store, I would not be fazed at all to hear either of these songs playing over the speakers. They both lack complex lyricism and original melodies and instrumentation. Renner’s vocals are still very good on both songs, but they aren’t enough to turn these into great songs.
Overall, I can tell that this album meant a lot to Renner and was part of the healing process from his injury, both mentally and physically. However, that alone does not turn this album into a great one. All of the songs on the album are decent, they just lack originality and the complexities that a more experienced singer/songwriter would have been able to provide. I think Renner is a very good vocalist and has a lot of promise in that department, he just fell a little short everywhere else. I think there is a big difference between actors who can sing and singers who can act, and Jeremy Renner is definitely the former.
“Love and Titanium”: ★★☆☆☆
