Razorlight - Razorlight

Fri 15th Sep, 2006 in Music Reviews

I didn’t like Razorlight the first time I heard them. I thought they were just another British band riding on the coattails of their friends The Libertines. But what I found when I looked deeper, was a band that stood on their own feet and wrote some of the most catchy and loveable pop songs I’d heard in years. It didn’t take me too long to fall in love with their debut album Up All Night and wish them to release another.

Razorlight features 10 songs and comes in at 35 minutes. It’s loaded with the simple pop songs that you came to expect from them with their first album. Razorlight have a knack of writing pop songs that make you want to dance and can even cheer you up when you’re feeling low. This is the reason why I could no longer ignore them.

Johnny Borrell isn’t the best singer in the world, but he carries as much charisma and sex appeal to make you forget about that. You clap your hands along in time with the music as Borrell sings to you in his best British accent. The chemistry in this band is undeniable.

While the British music scene seems to be laden with bands that look and sound the same, Razorlight bring something different. Instead of being carried entirely by the angular guitar work, Borrell’s voice seems to be the predominant fixture in the sound. It’s a welcome difference that sets them apart and puts them in their own league.

The themes of this album – smoking, drinking, partying, breaking up and falling in love – help bring an immature air to the record which appeals to the little kid in all of us.

A little political song entitled ‘America’ plays homage to the war and the fucked up state of the most powerful country in the world. Borrell sings about the “trouble in America” and the “panic in America” and gives you the impression that the time has come for Razorlight to be taken seriously by the critics.

‘Kirby’s House’ has been floating around for a while now. I was glad to see that it had been remastered and was in now much better shape than the old version. ‘Back To The Start’ sounds like it might be another old song, saved up from the Up All Night sessions. And just like that, the album comes to an end and I can’t wait til they release another one.