Review: Tucker Riggleman & the Cheap Dates deconstruct loneliness & isolation on ‘Restless Spirit’

Strands of tension and mood lie across Restless Spirit, the sophomore outing from West Virginia-based band Tucker Riggleman & the Cheap Dates. “I don’t wanna die,” crows Riggleman on “Virtue,” unraveling the sort of torturous isolation that makes insomniacs out of normal folks. With a sharp scalpel of songwriting, Riggleman exacts pounds of flesh through his willingness to cut deep and expose the truths about what it means to be alive. “I’m the pile of bones in the bed of the creek,” Riggleman’s words writhe in a muddy pit of blues and rock, thunderous and cloying. “And I’m the hungry ghost you don’t dare to feed.”

With producer Duane Lundy in tow, Tucker Riggleman jangles across 11 songs, as he borrows dark musical elements from Appalachian tradition. Ramblin’ blues tones decorate red-blooded country storytelling, stitched around the outside with static, fuming rock muscles. Riggleman’s voice is his trusty steed, delivering the words with addicting punchiness and throaty, vein-popping grit. “I was just a kid playing with a knife,” languishes Tuckerman with album opener, “Educated.” “It was an attempt at an exciting life,” he concedes, exposing raw nerve endings with his lyrical gumption. It’s a tone-setter that reveals a few cards but never gives away the perfect hand.

Restless Spirit rustles from a deeply unsettled place in Riggleman’s body. “There’s a shotgun in my head aimed right behind my eyes,” he sings, his bottom lip quivering. “And it means to kill me dead.” Such heart-leveling songwriting (“Shotgun”) characterizes much of the record, often feeling so specific and personal it’s like getting a glimpse into his anxiety-addled brain. When he’s not expressing dismay over the act of living, he’s voicing frustrations over being a working musician. “I can play 300 shows back to back in a fucking row, and it ain’t gonna get me a deal,” he bemoans on “Telecaster,” a thunderous little ditty featuring some of Riggleman’s most lonesome vocals.

Tucker Riggleman & the Cheap Dates stretch their performances until they snap, allowing for the band to excel beyond the bounds of their debut. Restless Spirit is worth threefold compared to Alive and Dying Fast, both catalog entries expert snapshots of life in the moment. In capturing the tragic beauty of existence, the latest musical excursion makes for a shimmering looking glass, into which we can all gaze and come closer to understanding our place in this god-awful hellscape. It’s the least we can do for ourselves. Sit with the record long enough, and you’ll witness exactly how music can change you.

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