The song itself originates from the American musical Loving, penned by Michael Andrew Storm and Meg McAndrew, a work concerned with loss and the long labour of mourning. It is material that demands a particular kind of courage: not the theatrical courage of the operatic tenor seizing his high note, but the quieter bravery of leaving yourself exposed, of trusting the listener to follow you into uncomfortable emotional territory. Rennie, to his very great credit, does exactly that.

"Rennie does not merely interpret this song — he inhabits it, wearing it like a coat he has owned for decades rather than a costume he slipped on for the occasion."

The production — a triumvirate effort between New Jersey-based Andrew Hollander, Germany's Alan Vukelic, and Rennie himself — is architecturally sound and strategically restrained. Where lesser producers might reach for the sledgehammer of string overdubs and compressed drums to announce emotional importance, these three men have the wisdom to trust the voice at the centre of it all. The arrangement breathes. It creates space for Rennie's instrument to work, and work it does, with a control and a warmth that his career in musical theatre — Les Misérables, Elisabeth, Jesus Christ Superstar, Beauty and the Beast, among others — has honed to something very close to mastery.

One is reminded, at various points in the track's runtime, of the tradition of the great British and European theatrical balladeer: Tom Jones at his most sincere, Michael Ball at his most unguarded, or perhaps — in the track's most searching moments — a continental analogue of Anthony Newley navigating the collision of showbiz glamour and genuine private sorrow. Rennie navigates that collision with unusual grace. He does not sentimentalise, which is the fatal temptation of any song about grief. He simply tells the truth, in his way, with his voice.

The title is well-chosen. This Is Now speaks to the particular anguish of the bereaved present tense — the moment when loss stops being an abstract future dread and becomes the permanent texture of ordinary life. The lyric carries that weight without collapsing under it. McAndrew and Storm have written a song that respects its subject, and Rennie honours that respect by refusing to over-emote. He knows, as all the best interpreters know, that restraint is not the enemy of feeling. It is, quite often, feeling's most powerful vehicle.

"The arrangement breathes. It creates space for Rennie's instrument to work — and work it does, with a control and a warmth that three decades of theatre have honed to something very close to mastery."

Rennie's career trajectory has been genuinely unusual — a man who sang before Prince Albert and Princess Charlene in Monte Carlo, who appeared on Britain's Got Talent performing Never Enough from The Greatest Showman, who has performed alongside Eurovision royalty and raised charitable funds for the Regine Sixt Children's Aid Foundation, and who continues, now, to release recordings of increasing ambition and emotional depth. His 2025 collaboration with Grammy-winner Mikal Blue on Chase the Sun hinted at an artist expanding his scope; This Is Now confirms it.

This Is Now is, in short, the work of a mature artist who has earnt his authority over difficult material, delivering a performance that justifies that authority on every bar. It asks to be heard without distraction, at a reasonable volume, in a room where the light is going. Under those conditions, it is quite extraordinarily moving.