Canadian singer/songwriter Lennie Rayen delivers a fiery, strikingly self-aware portrait of longing, imbalance, and the uneasy difficulty of wanting more on “You Like It,” a gritty, smoldering indie pop standout from her upcoming debut album ‘Entertain the Space.’

Stream: “You Like It” – Lennie Rayen

I’m a mess and you like it…

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Wanting more from your life can feel like both a spark and a fracture – a restless pull that refuses to settle, even when everything around you insists you should.

It seeps into relationships, into routines, into the quiet negotiations we make with ourselves about what’s enough and what isn’t.

That tension – between contentment and craving, between staying and reaching – doesn’t always resolve cleanly; sometimes it just burns, turning inward until it demands to be named. On “You Like It,” Lennie Rayen gives that feeling a voice, channeling longing, frustration, and self-awareness into a sharp, smoldering confession that cuts as deep as it hooks. It’s a fiery, self-aware portrait of wanting more – from love, from life, from yourself – and the uneasy truth of what it means to finally say it out loud.

Talk to the wall
You don’t seem happy at all
I wanna be somewhere with you
You wanna be somewhere too

Talk to my friends
They say that i shouldn’t be with him
But it hurts so bad hearing words like that
When I’m stuck the middle, stuck in the middle

Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “You Like It,” an angsty, rock-fueled indie pop fever dream from Lennie Rayen, arriving alongside its music video as the second tease off her upcoming debut album Entertain the Space (independently out May 29). Following February’s “Give It Up,” the track continues to introduce a bold new sonic direction for the Canadian artist – one that trades bedroom-born softness for music that’s louder, grittier, and more immediate.

A self-taught singer/songwriter who’s spent the past decade honing her voice in intimate spaces, Rayen has long gravitated toward emotionally direct, confessional songwriting – drawing from lyrical heavyweights like Leonard Cohen and Fiona Apple while shaping a sound rooted in honesty above all else. Based in North Bay, Ontario and writing relentlessly for over ten years, she arrives at Entertain the Space at a turning point: No longer searching for her voice, but fully inhabiting it, embracing a dynamic palette that lets her instincts hit harder, louder, and with greater clarity than ever before. Written and produced entirely by Rayen and her longtime collaborator cleomeo, the album marks a defining moment of creative clarity, capturing an artist stepping fully into her voice with a refusal to hold anything back.

God I hate how I’m trying
Does it feel good? Giving nothing
Cause I’m a mess and you like it
I’m a mess and you like it

Where “Give It Up” reaches outward – chasing freedom, possibility, and the intoxicating pull of what could be – “You Like It” turns inward, sitting with the mess that’s left behind when those ideals fall short. If the former leans into limerence and escape, her new track lingers in the aftermath: The imbalance, the emotional stalemate, the realization that wanting more doesn’t always mean knowing how to get it. Built around the biting refrain “I’m a mess and you like it,” Rayen distills that tension into a song that is both playful and piercing – a line that carries equal parts hurt and humor, landing like a confession you didn’t realize you’d been holding in.

“I remember feeling very all or nothing, like I was longing for more in my relationships and my career,” Rayen tells Atwood Magazine. “Overall just feeling very stagnant. Subconsciously this song was me saying, ‘I need more out of everything in my life right now.’ I am trying to get better at contentment.”

From its opening lines, “Talk to the wall / You don’t seem happy at all,” Rayen drops listeners straight into her emotional standstill – a space where communication has broken down, but the feeling hasn’t. The track moves with a restless pulse, with dreamy, effect-laden guitars swirling around a steady, driving rhythm section as bass and drums push forward with urgency. Above it all, Rayen’s gentle voice floats and fractures at once – light and airy in tone, yet weighted down by deeper, unresolved emotions. That inner tension reaches its peak in the chorus, where she cuts through the haze with a disarming directness: “God I hate how I’m trying / Does it feel good? Giving nothing.” It’s a moment that lands like a release and a reckoning all at once, her delivery sending a chill down the spine as the song leans fully into its push and pull – softness and edge, vulnerability and bite, longing and self-awareness colliding in real time.

Look, what I’ve caught
Love, but it is probably wearing off
Yeah I wanted to be somebody to you
But you wanted to be somebody new

The refrain – “I’m a mess and you like it” – sits at the center of everything, equal parts accusation and admission. It’s a line that flips the lens outward and inward at once: Calling out a dynamic where dysfunction is tolerated, even desired, while also owning the vulnerability of being seen in that state. There’s a sharp edge to it, but also a wry self-awareness – the kind that comes from distance, from being able to recognize the pattern even as you’re still caught inside it. Rayen delivers it with a blend of charm and churn, turning what could feel heavy into something strangely magnetic, a phrase that lingers not just for what it says, but for everything it leaves unsaid.

God I hate how I’m trying
Does it feel good? Giving nothing
Cause I’m a mess and you like it
I’m a mess and you like it

“Those lyrics actually came last for me,” Rayen says of her song’s key phrase. “I was stuck on that chorus for a bit thinking I needed to say more, but I think the simplicity works, and it really does sum up the song. It’s this mix of hurt and humour, which is almost perpetually the state I am in. I’m so far removed from any negative feelings I had, that for me, this song really just feels so fun and fiery.”

That balance – between weight and release, between self-awareness and surrender – carries through the rest of the track, giving “You Like It” a sense of motion that feels both authentic and unresolved.

There’s no clean conclusion here, no tidy resolution waiting at the end; instead, Rayen lets the feeling sit, letting it breathe and stretch in its own contradictions. In doing so, she creates space for listeners to find themselves inside it – not as spectators, but as participants, recognizing their own patterns, their own wants, their own moments of staying when they know they should go. As Entertain the Space approaches its May 29 release, “You Like It” stands as a striking early glimpse into an artist unafraid to confront those truths head-on – and to turn them into something raw, resonant, and real.

I’ve got a wall around my heart
You’ve built it up and now you’re making it hard
To take it down and heal what’s lost
To take it down and heal what’s gone
I’ve got a wall around my heart
You built it up and now you’re making it hard
To take it down and heal what’s lost
To take it down and heal what

Atwood Magazine recently sat down with Lennie Rayen to discuss the making of “You Like It,” the emotional push and pull behind its lyrics, and the creative clarity that shaped her debut album Entertain the Space. Read on as she opens up about longing, contentment, and finding her voice in the mess – and stream the “You Like It” music video exclusively on Atwood Magazine, a striking portrait of tension, release, and the difficulty of wanting more.

God I hate how I’m trying
Does it feel good? Giving nothing
Cause I’m a mess and you like it
I’m a mess and you like it

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:: stream/purchase You Like It here ::

:: connect with Lennie Rayen here ::

:: stream/purchase Entertain the Space here ::

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Stream: “You Like It” – Lennie Rayen

A CONVERSATION WITH LENNIE RAYEN

Lennie Rayen: Other than listening to the music, because I feel like that’s an instant deep dive, I’d want them to know that I care about authentic human made art. My producer (cleomeo) and I, produced and wrote this whole album. And in a world where it feels like it’s killing artists and almost becoming more normalized for music to be generated in data centers, it’s important to know when it’s all made by two humans.

Lennie Rayen: I’ve always loved Leonard Cohen, definitely a lyrical north star for me growing up. I love Father John Misty, an inspiration to me in so many ways. Bowie, Fiona Apple, Florence + The Machine… Julia Jacklin is also a phenomenal songwriter.

Writing this album my music naturally shifted into this rockier sound, and it just feels so right for me and my taste. I’ve been writing for over 10 years now, and I feel like I have really found myself musically with this project, so I am excited about that.

Lennie Rayen: I remember feeling very all or nothing, like I was longing for more in my relationships and my career. Overall just feeling very stagnant. Subconsciously this song was me saying, I need more out of everything in my life right now.. I am trying to get better at contentment.

Lennie Rayen: Thank you! Those lyrics actually came last for me, I was stuck on that chorus for a bit thinking I needed to say more, but I think the simplicity works, and it really does sum up the song. It’s this mix of hurt and humour, which is almost perpetually the state I am in. I’m so far removed from any negative feelings I had, that for me, this song really just feels so fun and fiery.

Lennie Rayen: That line actually guided the whole video for me. My idea was a manic-girls-night-in, just me alone, the video is very much just me doing stuff I would do when I am feeling creative and angsty. Other than maybe playing chess with the ceramic cat… but also maybe I would do that. I just wanted it to feel loose, and I think it really matches the song and my personality.

Lennie Rayen: I shot this video with my best friend at her place. We used my old Sony Handycam that I had growing up. We just had so much fun, ate steak, danced around, and I choppily cut my bangs in the mirror. Super DIY.

Lennie Rayen: It was one of the earlier songs I wrote for Entertain The Space, before I even knew this was becoming an album. It was the song that led to other songs, like “Give It Up” and “I Know What I Want.” It helped shape what the album was going to sound like, and lyrically, this song unlocked a way of communicating through writing I feel like I wasn’t really doing before, this kind of subtle directness.

Lennie Rayen: This album feels like the most honest reflection of me and my artistry. I’ve grown a lot and I feel more connected to my sound, like there are the bigger, more rocky songs, but there’s also moments where I get really personal, more than I’ve ever been in a song before. I feel happy that this is my debut, it just feels right and I’m super proud of it.

Lennie Rayen: I hope they take what they want to take from it. I know that’s almost so typical to say, but that’s how I am as a listener of music, and genuinely that’s what I love most about music, how it can be perceived so differently. “You Like It” has playlisted my life for the last two years while making it, so I am ready for it to be out.

Lennie Rayen: I’ve been listening to Mitski’s new album on repeat, it’s so good. I especially love “The Lake” and “If I Leave.” I’ve also been loving Violet Grohl’s new music. The Band Rocket. Casper Skulls.

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:: stream/purchase You Like It here ::

:: connect with Lennie Rayen here ::

:: stream/purchase Entertain the Space here ::

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Stream: “You Like It” – Lennie Rayen

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