Like When You

Despite the fact that I'm bound by legal contract to love everything Born Ruffians will ever put out, their newest offering Like When You is one seriously awesome track. It's the b-side for Nova-Leigh, the second single from their sophomore album Say It.

After a 40 second Animal Collective-esque intro, some painfully nostalgic, rolling guitar riffs poke through the sax-and-synth. I'm going to go ahead and liken this to the soft opening bars of John Mayer's No Such Thing, a song I basically worshipped when I was twelve (that would explain the nostalgia). After this, the track takes on a very sweet sounding life of its own over the base riff, mixing a strong bass line, double vocals and interestingly placed rests. And the production, which was most likely done by Rusty Santos, really couldn't be more perfect.

Lyrically, it's pretty much a mystery what's going on. Something about love and two tickets to Mexico. Luke took his creative genius and 1,000 octave range and just ran with slurring a lion's share of the words, per usual. While the band usually takes some heat for this, I think it's pretty neat, because it forces you to actually listen to the music. The lyrics are another dimension.

Since I very rarely never write this much about a single song, you best be slappin' on some headphones and listening to it asap. Despite its b-side status, I really hope lots of people get to hear it. And that they're rehearsing it for the fall tour...yeah, that's not going to happen. But still!

In short / Listen here