Razorlight - Up All Night

[1] Leave Me Alone

[2] Rock 'n' Roll Lies

[3] Vice

[4] Up All Night

[5] Which Way Is Out

[6] Rip It Up

[7] (Don't Go Back To) Dalston

[8] Golden Touch

[9] Stumble And Fall

[10] Get It And Go

[11] In The City

[12] To The Sea

[13] Fall, Fall, Fall

Razorlight are currently being touted by the music press as “the next big thing”; a claim too often bandied about in an effort to sell music papers, when to be honest, there’s not too much to write about (Andrew WK? Stand up NME). Sometimes however, great bands can arrive out of this hype; notably The Strokes, and perhaps The Libertines fit the bill, and given the self-hyping frontman of Razorlight, Johnny Borrell, you could be very easily drawn into believing this band are a worthy owner of the “Best New Band” crown.

Are they? Well, yes and no. Whilst no doubt there are some fantastic, melodic, pop songs here (“Golden Touch”, “Vice” and “Up All Night” all in particular stand out), there’s nothing that hasn’t been done before. "Golden Touch", the first single off the record for instance, sounds like an unreleased Ocean Colour Scene track.

However, no one said Razorlight were the most original band, merely that they write great songs. And it must be said that on many of these tracks there is a superb immediacy which has been lacking in many rock bands lately. Many tracks are memorable after the first listen. The music is also deceivingly intricate and has been obviously cared for by Borrell. Some genius twists occur in places (such as the climax of the title track).