Pitchfork

That title makes Rigas' new single sound like a gimmick, which it certainly isn't. It also makes it sound like the song is taking the piss out of Springsteen's dreams of adolescent rebellion and liberation, which it sort of is. The Swedish musician (née Henrik Rigas von Euler) recounts dead-ends and hard knocks over an aggressive dance-pop beat, synth sirens, and a guitar that seems to grow more poignant as it fades out. "Nothing lasts in the long run, and the longer we run, the longer it becomes," he sings in a rap cadence, his hopes-dashed logic almost dizzying. With the line "But I was born not to run," the song stops dead, implying that the logical conclusion of those ideas may be too bleak to express. "Born Not to Run" sound like the rarely glimpsed flipside of Swedish pop, and the grainy black-and-white video, set against desolate tenement flats, suggests the song is the smoke-break musings of a minor hood. Still, the bleakness of this clip doesn't prevent it from being visually arresting as well as conceptually perfect.

MP3:> Rigas: "Born Not to Run"
[from the Born Not to Run EP; out now on Flora & Fauna]