Razorlight
Their debut is about as much fun as a colonic irrigation!
Albums
5/10
Producer: John Cornfield, Steve Lillywhite, Johnny Borrell
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Leave Me Alone
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Rock ‘N’ Roll Lies
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Vice
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Up All Night
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Which Way Is Out
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Rip It Up
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Don't Go Back to Dalston
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Golden Touch
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Stumble and Fall
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Get It and Go
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In the City
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To the Sea
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Fall, Fall, Fall
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Somewhere Else (bonus track)
I just don’t know about Razorlight. Of all the pitiful indie bands which surfaced in the first five years of the new millennium, Razorlight were one of the worst offenders. Johnny ‘bigmouth’ Borrell has always thought the sun to be shining out of his posterior, but on this debut all of his promises are empty ones and are the equivalent to waking up from a heavy night, turning to your half finished can of Strongbow for one last swig and a little solace from the throbbing head, but to only find that it had been used as a resting place for the evening’s Cigarette butts.
Let me start with the good before I inundate you with the bad, *looks*, I’m sure there was a good track or two along the way…
Rock ‘N’ Roll Lies was the band’s debut single and it is one of the high points on the first half of the album. The guitar tuning and riffs are your pretty standard indie rock affair, but Borrell has an instantly recognisable voice, which is at least one good thing about the man. All things considered it was rather unfair that it would only reach number 56 in the
UK chart.
Vice was the first single I ever heard Razorlight perform and was one of the songs which encouraged me to buy the album. While purchasing the album is a decision that I still rue to this very day, Vice makes for a damn fine single. The sing-along chorus of, “If it’s L-O-V-E, I’ll see you later…”, makes for one of the best vocal hooks on the entire album. Which Way Is Out is another above average track, although I’m not really feeling the clumsy guitar solo at the 2 minute 30 seconds part. Borrell has the swagger of a seasoned frontman and sounds as if he could give Liam Gallagher a run for his money here.
Don’t Go Back to Dalston is one of the best tracks from the album and is one of the primary reasons why Up All Night drags itself from the abyss and lands itself a 3/5 rating. It does nothing remarkable but is pleasant enough. To The Sea has the most standout and identifiable guitar riff on the album. It is both catchy and credible, if somewhat marred by Borrell’s charmless drone. It would appear that the man is devoid of any emotion, as his voice sounds EXACTLY the same on every damn song.
As for the rest, well, the less said the better. I’m really not a fan of this album and I think that I am being more than generous with the score that I have given it. I had originally marked it a 4/10, but some of those singles give it an extra breath of life.
As a final word, if you are one of the people to have a copy of the album with the bonus track, Somewhere Else, then the overall experience is made slightly better. It trumps any of the other singles found on Up All Night; the acoustic guitars are instantly catchy and make it worth staying around for that extra 3 minutes.
Up All Night established Razorlight as a decent singles band, but they have some way to go before they become a great album band. But people, listen to Great Uncle Dan when he says “that’s what second albums are made for”
Goodnight.
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8/10
Producer: Razorlight, Chris Thomas
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In the Morning
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Who needs Love?
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Hold On
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America
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Before I Fall to Pieces
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I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got
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Pop Song 2006
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Kirby’s House
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Back to the Start
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Los Angeles Waltz
Now, I didn’t see this coming! I needn’t tell you the copious amount of reasons as to why I didn’t get on with Razorlight’s debut LP (see my review of Up All Night), but rather, let us concentrate on the here and now by reviewing their self-titled second album.
Seriously guys, what an improvement! Johnny Borrell is still less than dependable when it comes to displaying diverse emotions vocally, but he now sings with a new found fervour which really helps the album along. Secondly, and more importantly, Razorlight’s song-writing has improved vastly and the end result is that each and every track is a possible single, which in turn causes me to declare that this second effort comes across as more of a greatest hits compilation than anything else. Of course that has a flip-side in that the album doesn’t flow together all that well, as it does feel at times as if a random bunch of tracks have been whopped together. But it scarcely matters when almost all of the tracks are of serious quality, and even if the album doesn’t necessarily flow all that well, it has at least been better edited and sequenced than their debut had.
In the Morning kicks things off in style, with Andy Burrows’ vibrant drumming giving Borrell’s guitar work a much needed kick in the crack. The lyrics aren’t anything special, but since when were lyrics Borrell’s forte? What is immense though is the stripped bare instrumentation in the last third of the song which plays host to a simple but downright addictive guitar riff.
My favourite song from the entire album is the piano ditty Who Needs Love?, which manages to carry the burdens of a somewhat simplistic mash of piano chords and somehow turn it into a slice of pop genius. If you had called Razorlight spontaneous at the time of Up All Night I would have laughed right in your fat face, but when Johnny encourages Burrows to generate a drum roll at the 2 minute 40 second mark the implementation has a substantial effect on the overall quality of the song (although I am not entirely convinced that it wasn’t planned in order to create the desired effect).
It is rather ironic that one of the worst songs on the album would be Razorlight’s first
UK number one, and yes folks, I’m talking about the all lighters aloft stadium pleaser,
America. Johnny Borrell reverts back to being a pretentious prat and for its running time it seems to challenge and dash all the effort I had put into forgiving them their debut. The other slow to mid-pace ballad is I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got. But whereas
America wouldn’t even be fit to find its abode in a cesspit, I Can’t Stop is a skilfully paced piece of work which really highlights the great chemistry within the band. The iridescent guitar and bass lines fade their way clearly into earshot and then Borrell treats us to some wonderfully paced lyrics, which seem to have been painstakingly tweaked to perfection. The start to each verse is probably too one-dimensional for its own good, but my God is it memorable and easy to quote, “I can’t stop this feeling I’ve got, I know who I am and I know what I’m not…”
Pop Song 2006 is very run of the mill and an entirely throwaway moment. Yet it still stands head and shoulders above almost anything from their debut. The crap title of the song does little to allude to the alpha-male posturing from Borrell which lies within. I seem to have no patience for Borrell when he starts playing games, I simply demand the very best from him or else I am not interested. In my defence though, I am of the opinion that when he isn’t writing songs at the top of his game, he is writing them at the bottom of his game – he does nothing in half-measures.
Penultimate track, Back to the Start, is indeed going back to the start as it features some of the more infectious riffs which are to be seen on Razorlight, akin to those which can be located on In the Morning. It’s probably my favourite all out rocker on the album and it nicely paves the way for the emotional climax of Los Angeles Waltz. And what a closer, seriously, the band exceed all of my expectations and truly have delivered on all fronts with Los Angeles Waltz. Even Borrell manages to conjure up some worthwhile lovelorn lyrics, “You can’t say that you love me, but that’s not what I’ve heard.” Who would have believed it eh, Johnny Borrell actually writes something meaningful? Well, I would never have placed a bet on it!
Razorlight is the perfect second album. It not only manages to dispel four fifths of the negativity I had over the band, which had been incurred from their half-baked debut effort, but it also places a great deal of confidence in me that Razorlight can go on to better things. And with a running time of 35 minutes there are no unwanted extras here (well maybe a few), so keeping it tightly edited is the name of the game from now on boys! Well done and give yourselves a pat on the back!
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Razorlight
