Robbie Tucker’s music thrives at its most absurd. He has a knack for seamlessly blending eclectic characters and stories with elaborate and well-crafted soundscapes.
It makes sense, then, that his goal is to push boundaries—of his genre, of his established sound, and even his own physical limits. There is no hill too tall for him to climb, and no horizon too far off to chase. Tucker chases just such horizons on his latest album, Blue Candy.
Tucker explores a whole slew of surreal settings on this album. From lonely woods to haunted school houses to time travel, there’s very little ground Tucker leaves uncovered. “Sweet Rosie Marie” stands out upon first listen, a song that whips between Tucker’s sweet crooning and the rowdy shouts and dialogue of his quirky alter ego, “Carnival Harvey.”
But it’s far from the only of its caliber. Indeed, the songs on this are each vibrant and distinct in their storytelling and sound, and it’s rare for a track to not have an eccentric flourish of some kind.
Even when lyrics aren’t present, Tucker showcases his talent at building intricate instrumentals that paint just as vivid of an image. “Emptiness of the Shallow Wolves,” for example, is over four minutes of howling wolves and hushed scat singing layered over a dramatic swell of guitar and horns.
Despite his flair for the dramatics, Tucker knows just when to strip things back and let the lyrics speak for themselves. “Tin Toy Soldier” follows a pretty simple formula of vocals over acoustic guitar, but it serves to elevate the touching and whimsical story of a toy soldier persevering despite life’s hardships. A change of pace compared to some of the zanier tracks, but it holds its own all the same. In fact, the constant wonder of what’s going to come next makes up a lot of the album’s fun and charm.
“I’m on an adventure without rules or structure which is how the greatest destinations are reached,” says Tucker of the nonsensical lyrics of the track “Nevermore,” and this philosophy truly informs the entirety of the album. Some songs have more of a carefully crafted story than others, but at the heart of all of them is the carefree spirit that makes Tucker’s sound so distinct and fun.