Razorlight
Olympus Sleeping
Hey Dylan, fire up the deep fat fryer, because Razorlight are back baby. It’s worth stating that, although they get a lot of stick for Johnny Borrell’s inflated sense of self-importance, their debut album is genuinely one of the greatest, made better for Borrell’s sneering pretentiousness on lyrics such as “She’s been reading Bukowski for days/ And she leans over, spits her name in my face.” This gets fairly close to those dizzy heights, suggesting the gods of Mount Olympus might jitter and caress in response to the singer’s current sexual predicaments. It’s got a good middle eight, with Borrell begging a lover not to leave by comparing her, angrily, to a sandwich.
Razorlight
Got to Let the Good Times Back Into Your Life
It’s a cavalcade of Razorlight singles! Back in 2014, Borrell told Metro that he didn’t engage with any media, as he learned more about the world from walking down the street with a guitar. Shortly after he blamed all the bad Razorlight songs on the band’s old drummer. So what can we say now he’s got a new line-up and full creative control? This sounds like something a new band from Stevenage would send into their local BBC Introducing show. Glad we waited.
Razorlight
Sorry?
Blimey, you wait ages for a new Razorlight single and then three come along at once. Perhaps Sorry? is apologising for the songs I just listened to? No, I don’t think so; instead it dips its toes into different pools of indie past, sounding a bit like secondary-school art rockers Cajun Dance Party with hints of that second Mystery Jets album where they tried to go 80s. Why is this happening? What’s next?!
Razorlight
Japanrock
FFS! There are four new Razorlight singles! So why have they done this? Four singles that all seem like exercises in making different flavours of 2004 indie rock? This does at least nod to the band’s early days, ie it sounds as if it were written by horny students. There’s a lot of shout-singing reminiscent of fellow indie graduates Good Shoes, who were sort of like Razorlight but with self-deprecation. The problem with this genre is you can’t really return to it in your mid-30s, because it’s inherently about passion and youth and not thinking things through. That’s why bands tend to mature and make weird shed music, whereas Razorlight seem as if they want one last trip to an indie disco that has long since been turned into a Giraffe.
