Razorlight - 'Up All Night' (Vertigo)
3/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Razorlight have made a good record. Razorlight themselves however, would tell you they've made an incredible record. Heck, if 'Up All Night' could talk, it would probably ridicule the very existence of any other albums. Confidence (or should that be arrogance?) is the essence of the band, and if this hadn't come across in the relentless gigging and promo they've been doing prior to this release, there's certainly enough of it here to make sure you get the right impression. If this was a band playing in a room with you, (something which, thanks to some great production, often sounds as if it is the case) it wouldn't come as a surprise if at the end of every song each member turned joyously towards another for a celebratory high-five.
Very few debut records could live up to the hyperbole that was attached to this one from not only the omnipresent UK music-press (yeah, that lot again...), but this time, the band themselves. So, of course, 'Up All Night' is not all it's been cracked up to be. The promises of every track on it being a potential top-ten single and its creators already being some of the most important songwriters in decades were naturally too good to be true. But you'll only actually find this a disappointment if you actually believed any of that guff anyway.
If you don't expect the perfect record, you get a perfectly good one. It's only because you've been told that it's exceptional that you search for reasons to disprove that myth. But as with most people fond of blowing their own trumpet, they definitely get it right from time to time. This is primarily achieved on some ludicrously catchy singles, the best of which named 'Stumble & Fall'. It's quite easily the peak of the record, stumbling and falling all over itself, bashed out with gusto, and rarest of all, sees frontman Johnny Borrell admitting of his own imperfections. 'Golden Touch' is almost equally thrilling, comfortably winning the prize for the oddest-sounding song to enter the top-ten in an age.
A problem however is that whilst 'Up All Night' is full of great tunes which are refreshingly unaware of any past to rock and roll and invigoratingly self-assured, it's inescapable that for most of the time they seem essentially to be singing about very little at all. Razorlight can't pull the heart-strings just yet because for all the sentiment of really 'meaning it' comes across in their music, quite what precisely they mean is nowhere near as clear. Whilst shouting something as if the noise in question emanates from ever pore of your being works absolute wonders on 'Stumble & Fall' and 'Rip It Up', it falters on 'Which Way Is Out' and the bafflingly poor choice of opener 'Leave Me Alone'. Much of the record walks this line between being virile enough to sound genuine and simply lacking anything of much interest to shout for a chorus. 'Don't Go Back To Dalston' gets it very right, 'Get It And Go' just about gets it wrong, and the pattern continues.
They'll develop because they have to. They've put too much on the line for this all to go a bit Gay Dad. Thankfully, one thing this debut is full of other than an overestimated idea of its own importance is pointers - hints at what should, but more importantly will, be happening with Razorlight by the time they grace us again. The problems can be easily overcome (for one thing, releasing four singles before the album hits the shelves sadly leads to a feeling of us having owned this record for years already), and it's not too adventurous to say that there's every chance in the world that they can combine the tuneful brilliance of the singles with the wild abandon of the likes of 'In The City' and genuinely become one of Britain's best bands. As for now, they're simply one of our best hopes. Pretend that's all you know, and you should have no quarrel.
Artists in this article: Razorlight
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