… and his album, Sick Boi
An outstanding new LP by the remarkably talented Welsh, Brighton singer-songwriter rapper and guitarist Ren Gill, influenced by years of bed-ridden mental and physical illness, expressing caustic, self-torn schizophrenia, his songs are packed with wordplay, wit, catchy tunes, gut-wrenching emotion and invention. In 2015 he released a more acoustic, poem-based experimental LP Frecked Angels, but after various singles this breaks through to a whole new level. He has particularly attracted attention with last year’s standalone single, a 9-minute split-personality poem-song Hi Ren. On this album he continues in a similar vein, sometimes using acoustic guitar, but also breaking into full hip-hop beats and also a range of other styles, flipping, as on that single, different voices, the tender, good Ren, and the evil, more nasal Ren, as well as flipping into other voices. Rarely do artists combine raw, brutal honesty with such skilful, slick, articulate delivery, showing a highly acute ear, and voice for cadence and effortless changes of rhythm. Standouts here include the title track, the catchy beats and noises of Animal Flow, the piano-led Money Game Part 3, the punchier number Murderer, and the tenderly painful Su!cide, but across the whole album he pulls no punches and takes no prisoners, above all with himself. An album of the year contender. With ongoing health issues, we wish him well. Out on The Other Songs.
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