Album Review: Born Ruffians - Uncle, Duke & The Chief

Canada's Born Ruffians are back for a fifth go around. Uncle, Duke & The Chief is a conscious departure from the angular NY art-rock (a la Talking Heads) the group excel at, harking instead back to the simpler times of pre-Sgt Pepper's... Beatles and floppy-haired guitar pop.

It's a good move, resulting in a stronger, leaner, self-assured record full of beaming choruses and brilliantly sunny harmonising that's more in common with The Beach Boys than Tom Tom Club.

Love Too Soon is a hyperactive daydream and the way it fades into mid-album palette cleanser, Spread So Thin is marvellous. Side Tracked has a sly, R&B bass intro that wouldn't be out of place in a Grindhouse trailer compilation and the tension unravels via a lovely tumbling hook that has a levity that belies its slightly bitter theme.

The way lead singer Luke Lalonde approaches dog-eared stories of love (and its inevitable journey south) with such cheerful buoyancy is always impressive, but leaving behind the pretense of previous releases Ruff and Birthmarks has had a galvanising effect on him, endowing his scruffy poetry with a bracing clarity of vision and his band with a surging vigour that's hard to beat.