Born Ruffians: Born Ruffians

Warp Records continue to dip their toes into decidedly un-electronic waters, with their latest signing, Born Ruffians. Hailing from Toronto, this trio unleash short, crisp pop songs and their debut, six-song EP, clocking in at an efficient 15 minutes, buzzes with a nervous, twitchy energy. Your enjoyment of the disc may depend on if you can tolerate singer Luke Lalonde’s nasally pre-pubescent squeal. Personally, even at a quarter of an hour, I find it to be a bit much, but luckily the songs themselves are buoyant enough that a less discerning listener will find much to enjoy. The clean guitars, straight ahead production, and self-effacing attitude point to a Modern Lovers/Jonathan Richman influence tempered with a hint of grandeur. The lyrics point to the typical, “aw shucks” of shy, insecure nerds everywhere, longing for girls to go out with them. The kind that girls love to fall in love with and dress them up with new clothes. It’s all very cute and inoffensive, but it remains to be seen if the band can hold up this routine without it getting nauseous when stretched out to a full-length release. But why worry about that now? Born Ruffians are here, they want to party, and they kinda, sorta, wanna party with you (if that would be ok). So if you got a quarter of an hour, you could do worse than to give ‘em a chance.