#836 Born Ruffians - Little Garcon+

Here's an EP-sized extra helping of Red, Yellow, and Blue-era Born Ruffians, serving to remind us of the stark difference between that album and its disappointingly limp follow-up. All three of the new originals have developing dynamics, unexpected turns, curious instrumentation and/or straight up catchy moments, which is to say: the things missing from Say It. Even the remixes do Say It one better, the Four Tet remix of I Need a Life in particular winding fragile vocal snippets and slow-burning chorus shoutalongs to cast a shadowy hangover across the original's exuberance (minus points though for a pointless, overlong outro that mars the aftertaste of the song, and the album at large though). Still! Further proof that there's a difference between being offhandedly clever and just being offhanded (the former's better) 3.5/5