The Comfort of Home

The Comfort of Home will be shoved into the pop-punk slot into which Rufio's first two albums really did fit quite nicely. The problem is that, like all smart punks, these guys have grown up in the course of five years, and their maturity is evident on this, perhaps their most musically impressive and emotionally developed album. Although there are plenty of high-energy, high-distortion, tightly harmonized rave-ups here, the only musical category that Comfort of Home really fits comfortably is "rock & roll." The band claims influences as diverse as Coldplay and Metallica, but listen closely and you'll hear more than a hint of such power pop forebears as the Clarks and Material Issue, and there's a hint of whimsical weirdness going on with the guitars on "Simple Line" that wouldn't sound out of place on one of Adrian Belew's solo albums. The songs on Comfort of Home move from strength to strength, varying in quality from solidly good ("Out of Control," "Let Fate Decide") to borderline breathtaking ("Mental Games," "Questions and Answers") with most falling somewhere in between. When the worst songs on your third album are all very good, that bodes well for the future. Long may Rufio fail to fit its categories.