Ruff Endz Examines Rough End of Love

Say what you will for the glory of love, but heartbreak generally makes for better music.

Sure, it’s nice to hear singers pledging their hearts and saving all their love for some lucky guy or gal. But if you want to hear how good a vocalist really is, it’s better to turn to the sad stuff. Listen to how they carry that torch. Cock an ear to hear if the pain sounds genuine. Ask yourself if the music reminds you of when your last love affair went wrong.

For a lot of listeners, Ruff Endz already passed that test with its first single, the bittersweet break-up ballad “No More.” Over an insistently percolating synth pulse, the Baltimore-based duo confronts a lover’s infidelities and the loss of shared pleasures. “No more shopping sprees / No more late night creeps,” goes the chorus. “We can’t even kick it no more.”

Because the song speaks to the anger and anguish that follow from love gone bad, “No More” strikes a chord with anyone who’s had part of his or her life end along with a relationship. Even so, it’s not the lyric that makes the performance so memorable, but the quiet intensity singers David Chance and Dante Jordan bring to the recording. Hearing Jordan groan soulfully as Chance croons, “Girl, I thought that the love was strong / Till I saw you in the next man’s arms” makes the song’s emotions almost palpable.

Yet as powerful as “No More” may be, there’s plenty more on the duo’s debut, “Love Crimes,” released last week. Indeed, Ruff Endz conveys the full spectrum of heartbreak and romantic pain, from aching desire in the slow, slinky “Missing You” to smoldering rage in another track.

If you thought the Temptations weren’t too proud to beg, wait until you hear these two take the heat for another man’s sins in “I Apologize.” This isn’t the typical “he done you wrong, I’ll do you right” maneuver. Chance and Jordan not only profess to feel this woman’s pain, but offer to bear responsibility even though some other guy was at fault. As farfetched as the lyric seems, the naked emotionality is enough to make even the most cynical listener believe.

Romantic though it often is, Ruff Endz also has its sensual side. “Phone Sex,” for instance, opens with the duo chanting “Let’s get dirty-dirty / Let’s be naughty-naughty” before the song details the sort of phone games lovers sometimes play. It’s more suggestive than explicit and leaves plenty of room for Jordan to work against the melody line, but its greatest strength is rhythmic--particularly the way producer Manuel Seal works phone noises into the chattering groove.

Still, the album’s most memorable songs are the ones dealing with love gone wrong. “Where Does Love Go From Here,” for example, not only vividly evokes the demise of a relationship but couches that heartbreak in the vocabulary of vintage R&B.; Chance and Jordan work the slow, bluesy groove with such soulful authority that older listeners will find themselves flashing back to the glory days of Bobby Womack--and that’s high praise, indeed.

Even better, the songs on the album address the emotional turmoil of betrayal without suggesting that these “Love Crimes” inspire real crimes. So even when one song finds Chance singing, “I caught you cheating,” the group never broaches the possibility of revenge, choosing instead to anguish over what went wrong. That’s impressive--particularly when compared to the way performers such as Eminem deal with unfaithful lovers on record.

It may be that Ruff Endz avoids violent lyrics because they’re decent, moral guys at heart (Chance and Jordan include Jesus in the album’s thank-yous). But in emphasizing suffering over revenge, the duo ties its music to a deep tradition within soul music. Between their fondness for gritty, gospel-schooled flourishes and the open emotionality of their singing, Chance and Jordan seem closer to the classic passion of Marvin Gaye than the more contemporary sound of K-Ci & Jojo.

In that sense, the album’s only real misstep is “If I Was the One,” a lovely Diane Warren number that, for all its melodic appeal, leaves the duo sounding slightly bland. Although it’s easy to understand why such a pop-friendly tune would be included on the album, the truth is that Ruff Endz is at its best when the music itself is a little rough. Better to leave that sort of colorless balladry to the likes of Boyz II Men.