Born Ruffians Release New Single “Mean Time”

Canadian indie rock/indie pop band Born Ruffians have released their new single “Mean Time“.

The song features on their forthcoming new album “Beauty’s Pride“, set to arrive on June 6 via Yep Roc. Pre-order your copy here.

Formed in 2004 in Midland, Ontario, Born Ruffians have long been known for their dynamic evolution, shifting from their scrappy indie-rock beginnings to the polished indie-pop of Birthmarks (2013), the Richard Swift-produced Uncle, Duke & The Chief (2018)and the anthemic, E Street-inspired tracks of JUICE (2020). Beauty’s Pride represents another bold leap forward. Produced by Roger Leavens and mixed by Gus Van Go (Metric, The Beaches), Beauty’s Pride blends the band’s alt-rock roots with electronic and experimental elements.

The album opens with the unexpected, synth-driven anthem “Mean Time,” a euphoric, danceable track that the band’s singer/guitarist Luke Lalonde never thought would fit into the Born Ruffians catalog. “I wasn’t writing it as a Born Ruffians song at all,” he says. “I just wanted to create something completely out of the mold.”

Lalonde had the following to say about the single:

“Nabokov says, ‘…that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.’ Mean Time is sort of autobiographical/speculative non-fiction inspired by Nabokov’s beautiful autobiography Speak, Memory. It’s about those two black voids, the before and the after, and all of the extraordinary moments in between. I had a lot of extra verses that had to be pared down to make this song work. It came out musically and lyrically in a big rush, and I initially did not envision it for the band because the instrumentation was so different from what we normally do. I built everything around synth and drum samples. I showed it to the band, and they loved it. It became the thesis statement for Beauty’s Pride, summing up a lot of the lyrical themes I was going through at the time, especially with my wife pregnant with our first child.“

Take a listen now.

Beauty’s Pride Track List:

1. Mean Time
2. ToBe Seen
3. What A Ride
4. Let You Down
5. All My Life
6. Athena
7. Can We Go Now
8. Incoming
9. Supersonic Man
10. The Knowing Is Easy
11. Do
12. Hi
13. In the Meantime
14. Beauty’s Pride

Photo credit: Calm Elliott-Armstrong