If the sound of hot new R&B act Ruff Endz is a bit familiar, well, yes, you have it heard it before. The Charm City twosome are blessed with solid sexy voices with a sprinkling of gospel skills à la K-Ci and Jo Jo Hailey. Like the Hailey brothers, Ruff Endz have good pipes, a swaggering street thug/loveman appeal and the time-tested old school soul meets hip-hop vibe. They are a state-of-the-art example of the blurred distinctions, both stylistically (peep the "No More" video complete with light-skinned silicon-enhanced "models" and Ruff Endz iced out, in skullies) and sonically, between R&B and hip-hop (as on the infectious top 10 single "No More"). "No More" is a misogynist, cautionary tale against money-hungry chickenheads, but, politics aside, much of Love Crimes is quite good. On tracks like "I Apologize" and the soaring "The World To Me," Ruff Endz delivers the goods. In fact, besides a lack of originality, the only real down side is that (at 70 minutes) Love Crimes is numbingly long: it would be twice as good at half the length. --Amy Linden