Ruby Gill's "Some Kind Of Control" luxuriates within the listlessness

No longer are audiences fanning the fires of art made during, or in reflection, of the pandemic years. In fact, it is nearly half a decade on from the dawning of coronavirus, and barely embers of enthusiasm remain as the world's population seems to collectively want to sigh and move past it all. That being said, Ruby Gill's latest track "Some Kind Of Control" strikes such an altogether considered and immediate chord it's hard to refuse its beauty or soul-bearing nature as it fizzes away over a minimalist alt-folk beat.

The track finds emotional gravitas exploring the blurred lines of our own bodily autonomy during lockdown - at once shut inside, but also afforded the most time we've ever had to connect with and be ourselves. It is a reflection straight from the diary pages of Gill, as intimate as it is informative of their innermost thoughts. Moments of pause and quiet assurance find equal importance alongside the steady acoustic guitar line, and lightly shaking percussion in the production. "I've been leaving my life up to other people again / I've been putting my faith in someone else's hands / I've been making no decisions in my own defence," she opens the track with a witting and piercing self-diagnosis.

"I had been grappling with what it meant to have all and no control over my time and body - all at once," Gill explains. "In a big way, the world was in charge, but also in a day-to-day way, I had all the power: I could move freely through my kitchen and clothes and kindness however I wished - it was a new experience for me after feeling quite trapped in some difficult spaces and systems for a long time - “always babysitting other people’s arguments instead of my own” as the lyrics say. I feel like this song encompasses so much of what I've learnt and reclaimed in the past few years, and feels very reflective musically of my true, silly, powerful self and community."

The accompanying music video for "Some Kind Of Control", directed by Bridgette Winten, stiches together a series of black-and-white vignettes of Gill dancing, lounging, and luxuriating inside her home, before she wanders into the great outdoors in the closing scenes. Perfectly happy in both surroundings, she ultimately supposits that the feeling of being in control is best reached from within. As the track fades out its plucky guitar line in an extended outro, it creates both an impactful and empowering quality in its peacefulness.

Born in Johannesburg, now based in Naarm/Melbourne, Gill's artistic authenticity isn't bound by one country or experience, with their honest penmanship applicable universally. If you only want to listen to one more pandemic-related song in your life, let it be this one.