As any heartbroken man can tell you, there's a progression to the ache in a relationship's end after the initial crushing event that is required for the healing process to start. First comes the anger – the man lashes out both at his surroundings and himself as he torments himself with everything that was. It can be ugly and aggressive, but it's necessary; the poison needs to be expelled, and it's only after that expulsion has occurred that, feeling empty and used up, the anguish sets in.
The anguish is key too – because every man must find the bottom of his existence and stand on it to figure out where up is.
Dax Riggs has taken these steps in album-length installments. Two years ago, Riggs raged blindly against the dying embers of a love on his solo debut, We Sing Of Only Blood Or Love. The singer screamed, he howled, he eviscerated himself and left all his insides on in front of listeners for their examination. There was catharsis in it, but that was totally overshadowed by Riggs' anger and pain. It was the dark night of his soul; on his solo debut, Dax Riggs found bottom and, on Say Good Night To The World, he takes some time to get his bearings and examine those depths and, down there, he finds some true beauty and genuine soul in the dark night.
Even in the beginning of the very tellingly entitled “Say Goodnight To The World,” the singer sounds spent; he left all his anger in the fifteen songs that comprised We Sing Of Only Blood Or Love and, here, all that remains is the stripped-bare soul of a man who has lost everything already. Between lugubrious and fluid guitar slashes, Riggs croons true and heart-wrenching lines of fallen affection that will rend listeners to the marrow in their candor before “I Hear Satan” hooks listeners in for the long haul with the singer's sighs of surrender. It's not time to leave this darkness yet, but this step seems key to the singer – so he goes out of his way to at least try to make listeners comfortable because that's the place he's in and he's trying to find his shattered pieces but, because it's presented in such a heartfelt way, anyone listening will feel compelled to try and help him put himself back together.
With that spell cast, each of the eight tracks following “I Hear Satan” represents another piece of the singer's forlorn puzzle. Songs like “You Were Born To Be My Gallows,” “Like Moonlight,” the lugubrious cover of “Heartbreak Hotel” which invokes both the images of “Cowboy” and “Junkie” simultaneously amd “See You All In Hell Or New Orleans” all see Riggs singing pretty and pretty meekly to expose some true regrets and all the heart that We Sing Only For Blood Or Love screamed off but, rather than coming off as watered down or weak, listeners finds themselves wanting to curl up inside them and either console the singer or find something missing from themselves, depending on the moment. It is in those songs that Riggs exposes the true counterpart to We Sing Of Only Blood Or Love, thereby rendering to more uptempo (but certainly not upbeat) diversions like “Gravedirt On My Blue Suede Shoes,” “No One Will Be A Stranger” and “Let Me Be Your Cigarette” to the level of post-punk fluff; they're still very good, but very separated from the point of the album.
As the resigned lighter-lifter “See You All In Hell Or New Orleans” closes out Say Goodnight To The World, listeners are left to look at the portrait of a shattered man that the ten pieces of this album combine to present. On one hand, that denouement could be seen as wildly depressing but, on the other, now that the pieces have been reassembled, the healing can really begin. With that process begun in the end, it leaves Dax Riggs with carte blanche when he returns to record a follow-up. Even as the record ends on a down note, it's a very exciting one; at the end of Say Goodnight To The World, Dax Riggs is freeto strike out in any direction he chooses with no loose ends left dangling. It'll be interesting to see what he does with that freedom.
Artist:
www.myspace.com/daxriggs
Download:
Dax Riggs – “No One Will Be A Stranger”i – Say Goodnight To The World
Album:
Say Goodnight To The World comes out on August 3, 2010 via Fat Possum Records. Pre-order it here on Amazon .
