Riggings is a master of creating atmospheric and emotionally intense music and their personal new album, EGG, is a masterpiece. Riggings, whom we interviewed for episode 2 of the Rainbow Rodeo podcast, likes to color in the spaces between genres, using music as a canvas for her incisive poetry. She may be the first to deny it, but comparisons to Sufjan, Cohen, and Bowie wouldn’t be amiss. The opening instrumental to egg prepares us for the journey ahead of us.
“The Birds Knew” is a deconstructed/reconstructed hymn to Riggings’ own process of coming out — first as queer, and then as trans. The song’s weighty elements recreate the emotional tension that is attendant to the fear, excitement, and dread that is often attendant to coming out. Fellow queer country rockers Mya Byrne and Swan Real join in angelic harmony on “The High and Lonesome Racket,” a ghostly folk song.
But she can’t suppress her wry sense of humor for too long, though. “Rhinoceros” is playful and whimsical, even as it conveys a sense of loneliness and disconnection. Even amidst the ennui of modern life, “Rhinoceros” suggests, there is always room to appreciate its absurdity. Riggings’ own performance softens with compassion, creating comfort for those of us who need it.
egg stands out most for the transcendent “Song For a Pregnant Astronaut.” One gets the sense that Riggings is singing her out here, an intense yearning on an album that is replete with songs about wanting what one is too afraid to reach out and grasp. egg is a masterpiece, produced by an artist who has many such albums under her belt. One could say that the sky is the limit for Riggings, but she is constantly pushing the stratosphere higher and higher — the rest of us just need to catch up.