Album Review: The Rigs – World On Fire

I’m a man of simple pleasures. When someone can seamlessly blend two different genres together I’m almost always drawn by it, and this debut album from LA duo The Rigs is one of the finer examples of recent years. Try to imagine for a second a combination of Oh Wonder and Royal Blood… no? Me neither! The Rigs have taken two sounds that I would have thought completely incompatible and have made them work in harmony. You’ll find sparse, moody synthpop and adrenaline fueled alternative rock in equal measures on this record, and at only eight tracks long it has been stripped of all filler and kept as just the bare essentials. The boundary between raw and refined is blurred on this innovative album, and in another life I could see this being a massive, trend-setting release.

The title track builds from spiralling synths into a rousing chorus that is an absolute tour de force, while opening number ‘The Brave’ kicks the record off with the duo’s heaviest salvo, albeit taking an odd turn in the latter half as it becomes the soundtrack to some demonic carousel. The retro synths of ‘Fall or Fly’ starts the track off with some Stranger Things vibes as the tension builds, before exploding into glorious retro technicolour for the towering final chorus. It’s the closing track ‘When We Were Young’ however that offers the album’s standout moment. The ethereal gospel harmonies of this stripped back and soulful track show yet another side to their talents. The multifaceted TJ Stafford and Caitlin Parrott make jumping between wildly different genres seem like it’s the easiest thing in the world, when in reality they are putting even some all time greats to shame.

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Original Publication by Belwood Music, November 16, 2017 / James Fenney

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