After a period of prolificity early in the decade—releasing their Juice/Squeeze/Pulp trilogy of LPs over the course of 2020 and 2021—Ontario’s Born Ruffians are returning this summer with their ninth studio album, Beauty’s Pride. An experiment in synthier sounds, the project was recently teased with an early single dipping into sci-fi lyrical territory, while the latest cut from the record, “Athena,” sees Luke Lalonde employing a staccato vocal delivery recalling the early new wave scene as his band’s jaunty post-punk hews closer to revivalist indie-rock peers like Vundabar.
The song’s lyrics are equally split between past and present, though Lalonde notes that this past goes well beyond the late 1970s. “I was writing about why Athena, goddess of war, would be interested in online discourse and stuff like that,” he explains. “I’m begging Athena to take it easy on me. Sometimes there’s a real carrot-and-stick, never-ending search for fulfillment in life. The point is to perpetuate desire in an endless ouroboros. Inadequacy is the currency, and it’s printed in never-ending supply. ‘Athena’ is a deviation on Beauty’s Pride as it dips into capitalist dystopia for a moment but in a fun, danceable way.”
Beauty’s Pride will arrive on June 6 via Yep Roc—you can pre-order that here—followed by a series of Canadian shows later in the month and US dates in the fall, with those latter shows going on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. local time (find all of their upcoming tour stops here). Check out the new single below.
