CD Review: Razorlight "Up All Night"

Amidst the new generation of “next big things” to come across the pond this year, Razorlight come at the tail-end, and fortunately, they haven’t come too late to bring us a good original batch of brash pop songs from the streets of London.

As the first track, “Leave Me Alone” opens with its Mott The Hoople-style piano and raw garage pop guitars, we are introduced to the in-your-face style of singer-songwriter Johnny Borrell as he sings “Oh when did you decide / To start living like it's suicide / And wasting all my time / And messing up my mind.”

Razorlight’s debut release is a great collection of wild London stories. In the street anthem “Rock and Roll Lies”, Borrell takes some ironic poetic justice as he passionately says “He sees your eyes, you're just the rock'n'roll eyes / Oh but it's just lies, babe, it's just the rock'n'roll lies.”

Like their neighborhood chums, The Libertines, Razorlight take a unique look at the life that is London – the music, the people and the scene, mixes it in a blender and churns it out in their own charming chaotic manner like a boozed up bard talking on the street corner to whomever passes by.