Yungblud dubs himself “the original loser” on his booming new song “Original Me,” a collaboration with Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds.
“I’m so sick of me, wake up and hate to breathe,” the British singer belts over blaring synths and drums. “And I pride myself in that — so dramatic, I’ll admit.”
Reynolds appears at various points throughout the track, throwing in a few lines on the first verse and adding some raw screams on the choruses. Late in the track, Yungblud switches gears for a rapped verse filled with trendy triplet rhythms, and the bridge section incorporates some softly strummed acoustic guitar.
“Original Me,” which the duo co-wrote, appears on Yungblud’s upcoming EP The Underrated Youth, out October 18th. Three days later, they’ll perform the song live on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
“This song is about accepting the parts of yourself that you hate and realizing your biggest superpower is to be originally, authentically yourself,” Yungblud said in a statement. “Working with Dan Reynolds was such a dream come true as he is a huge inspiration for me. The song literally came out of the studio within a day. The mutual raw energy between us made this song what it is.”
Yungblud — who released his debut LP, 21st Century Liability, in 2018 — is currently on a North American tour that continues Saturday, October 12th in Philadelphia.