Born Ruffians - I Need A Life

First impressions of ‘I Need A Life’ are those of slight confusion. We’ve been here too many times before, like some Groundhog day that keeps repeating the songs of Summer 2005. Surely, why would there be yet another band who sound like The Rumble Strips meets Arctic Monkeys? Surely by now someone, anyone, has realised that the time for floppy fringed head shaking guitar light pop bands is over? Personally we’re tired of songs about, well, nothing much, sung in a cheeky chappy kind of way to make them more tuneful. In all honesty there is little wrong with the song itself, but neither does it do anything that makes us want to say anything particularly constructive about them.

Acoustic B-side ‘Hummingbird’ does little to rectify the situation with its constant ‘woah-oh-woah’ sounds, Born Ruffians are keen to keep the song writing to a stringent minimum whilst keeping the twangly guitars as an annoying constant, leaving no choice but to skip to third track ‘So Long Tadpole’ which, like the first skips by unnoticed. Sounding like the support band you instantly forget the moment the main act is on just about summarises Born Ruffians. ‘The sun is shining but we stay inside’ they sing, and to be honest if that’s the way they feel, who are we to stop them?