Wednesday, April 22, 2009

oh, but we go out at night!

Born Ruffians - "I Need a Life" (Four Tet Remix)

After listening to this remix umpteen times, I’ve decided that Four Tet should remix every song I like—or every song I don’t like, for that matter. The remix minces and reassembles the rough-hewn singing in Born Ruffians’ “I Need a Life,” creating an achey-breakey assemblage of boy vocals that swirl over pools of blips and bleeps. By the time the chorus breaks in and we hear the Ruffians chanting “Oh, but we go out at night!” the track has built up to such a crescendo that the otherwise forgettable phrase becomes a sublime assertion. At 6:50 the moving plea

I need a life
I’ve never had
I need so much more good, Lord
And much less bad

closes the track and turns what might otherwise have sounded like a frat-boy chant into a heartfelt prayer.

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