Today, Toronto indie rock mainstays Born Ruffians released their latest album, Beauty’s Pride, via their own label Wavy Haze Records.
True to form, the record delivers a fun and catchy mix of indie alt-pop and rock, laced with synth flourishes that bring a fresh twist to their signature sound.
Beauty’s Pride is both familiar and refreshing—full of the upbeat energy and melodic hooks that longtime fans have come to love, while still pushing their sonic palette just enough to keep things interesting.
About the album by Born Ruffians:
While the title of Beauty’s Pride may hint at the physical and emotional bonds between parents and their offspring—a theory reinforced by a brief cooing cameo from the littlest Lalonde on the closing title track—the phrase has actually been bouncing around Lalonde’s head for a few years.
Its origins date back to a trip Luke took to India to visit his wife, who was doing research on her Ph.D at a dairy-farm facility over there.
Upon borrowing a friend’s glittery purple child-size bike for a leisurely day ride, he noticed the words “Beauty’s Pride” emblazoned on the frame in big Disneyesque letters.
Luke later discovered that the bike he borrowed that day didn’t actually belong to his friend—he had accidentally taken somebody else’s wheels.
But his brief tenure as India’s most unwitting bike thief would fortuitously plant the seed for the album we have today.
“Where we’re normally scrambling at the 11th hour to find a title amongst the lyrics, something that sums up the feeling of the collection of songs we’ve assembled, this time we worked in reverse,” Luke says, “with the large, sparkling, purple light of ‘Beauty’s Pride’ guiding us all the way. Over the next few years of writing, we never wavered from the ‘Beauty’s Pride’ idea, and we even built a collective playlist to support its mood and vibe, and cited movies that we thought were or were not ‘Beauty’s Pride.’
Then all of a sudden, once Louie was born, the title became about him.
It just made sense all of a sudden.”
But as much as it was influenced by the birth of his child, Beauty’s Pride also signifies the rebirth of his band and the record witnesses them savouring a rejuvenating sensation that few artists get to experience as they enter their third decade of music-making. Pretty much all of the bands Born Ruffians came up with in the mid-2000s Toronto scene are long gone.
Born Ruffians have arrived at the point where a lot of bands give in to the nostalgic lure of album-anniversary tours or call it quits.
But the beauty of Beauty’s Pride lies in its refusal to accept any of those predestined fates.
Rather, it presents Born Ruffians as the rare veteran act that can still make you feel like you’re discovering your new favourite band.
Beauty’s Pride gets: 📷📷📷📷📷📷📷/10.
