The Born Ruffians: Red Yellow & Blue

For its first full-length, Canadian band Born

Ruffians deliberately avoided fleshing out what could've been a simple Strokes

rip-off by exploring simpler sounds with producer Rusty Santos (Grizzly Bear,

Panda Bear, possibly other bears). After the title track's faux-martial intro,

"Barnacle Goose" offers the first animal fake-out: A spare intro, with guitar

chords once per measure, refuses to develop into the expected jangle. Instead,

as with the rest of the disc, it's consciously underproduced: The bass is just

as quiet as the guitar, and the drums are just as likely to rap the rim as

utilize the whole kit. There are more anemic animals, too: "Foxes Mate For

Life" is the token lament over modern romantic problems, while "Red Elephant"

acts, per convention, as the epic closer. The highlight comes via the yelped

call-and-response of "I Need A Life," whose lyric—"but we go out at

night"—will hopefully lead Born Ruffians to a club where they can play loud

and fill in the perversely missing spaces.