Track Review: Get Tuff – “Rag Doll”

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RB Roe (also of The Weak Days, Jetty Bones, and Save Face) trades pop punk bass lines and high kicks for a darkwave takedown of abusive behavior and manipulation with “Rag Doll,” their debut single under the name Get Tuff.

No detail of past trauma gets a pass in this searing, brooding track. Swooping, airy synths accented with slowly building, layered electronic percussion hits. Roe’s almost-deadpan chorus of “when I was your rag doll,” while accompanied by spare instrumentals, hits even harder with the context they build around that one statement, exploring exploitation, violence, gaslighting, and emotional manipulation in their lyrics.

What’s most striking about this track is the almost too-natural progression of things, how familiar Roe’s descriptions and recounting feels when paired with the ever-evolving, shifting and morphing as the track’s protagonist works through past experiences and takes back their power. The result? An deep, unsettling, poignant (and yes, catchy) view into the psyche of the tumultuous, damaging nature of abuse.


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Adam Parshall//@parshallythere


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