Born Ruffians

For all their fancy pop footwork, Toronto, ON’s Born Ruffians are charmingly cocksure on this sophomore sleeper. Red Yellow And Blue shares some kinship with the coy romanticism of the Modern Lovers or Violent Femmes but bears traces of the brute conviction of Pavement or Pixies, where rickety musical simplicity is magnified in a roar of confidence. As with the aforementioned bands, the Ruffians’ virtues may not appeal to everyone but their open playfulness is a force field that protects them as they send barbs out into the world. The gang mentality is evident on the jarring arrangement of "Barnacle Goose” and in the infectious, complementary background yelps of "I Need a Life.” There are cool Minutemen rhythmic things happening underneath Luke Lalonde’s chirpy vocal melody on "Hummingbird.” The same could be said for "In a Mirror,” while some flirty Donovan creeps into "Little Garcon.” Despite such references, nothing Born Ruffians do is simple to categorise and Red Yellow And Blue is all over the place, in a wonderful way.