Track Listing

1. In The Morning
2. Who Needs Love?
3. Hold On
4. America
5. Fall To Pieces
6. Can't Stop This Feeling I've Got
7. Pop Song 2006
8. Kirby's House
9. Back To The Start
10. Los Angeles Waltz

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1085 in Music
• Released on: 2006-07-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack

Amazon.co.uk Review
Razorlight's eponymous sophomore release doesn't so much reinvent the freewheeling sensibilities of their '04 debut Up All Night as hone them into a more willfully focused pop whole, a mindset that immediately evinces itself on the inviting, Boomtown Rats-meets-INXS-flavored opener "In the Morning." The growing confidence of songwriter/vocalist Johnny Borrell is almost palpable as he expands the band's horizons to include the '50s-rooted influences of "Before I Fall to Pieces" and the Dion-esque "Who Needs Love," the Chrissie Hynde-bred tension of "Hold On" and the sonic fervor of early U2 on "Pop Song 2006." Gratifyingly, that tack has also pushed the rest of the band - especially guitarist Bjorn Agren - towards honing their chops in service of a tighter, yet still playful sound. It may be too easy for seasoned ears to deconstruct the influences here, but by the time this taut, economic collection closes on the high note of the melodramatic "Los Angeles Waltz" even the cynics should be won over. --Jerry McCulley

CD Description
The follow-up to the million selling 2004 debut 'Up All Night', Johnny Borrell and Co release their self-titled second album. Recorded in London and produced by Chris Thomas (U2, Pulp, Elton John), this effort delivers a more mature, anthemic sound, drawing comparisons with Oasis' 'Definitely Maybe' and consolidating Razorlight's status as one of Britain's top guitar bands. Includes the single 'In The Morning'.

Customer Reviews

The Boys rock
I love this album even though it's not as diverse as the debut.The guitars, lyrics and vocals compliment like any good rock album should - wind that car window right down and pump up the volume

Razor-sh*te would have been more appropriate.
This is The Cars re-packaged for the 21st century, and a return to the vapid rock values of dull 70's pop acts that survived on image alone.

Seriously. Buy this album if you don't like to be challenged (or if The Beautiful South prove to be too "out-there" for you). This is mindless, substance-less riff-rock for people who want to sing along to words that mean nothing. The empty meandering musings of a talentless poseur trying desperately to appeal to his own sense of selfish self-worth and his own carefully constructed self-image. Who cares if the songs are bland as long as the hype machine is in overdrive. It's a sorry state of affairs, but it's true. The rock songs don't rock, the pop songs don't pop and the love songs were probably composed while Borrell was looking in a mirror. A shocking ode to a generation consumed by apathy and rampant consumerism.

If you think Borrel is the greatest songwriter of his generation, and that this album is somehow a meaningful statement (or even a good album!), then I can only demand that you listen to more music. Even the boring cover art is indicative of the bland nonsense that lurks within. An empty testament to itself and it's own sense of bloated self-image. Vapid, vacuous and entirely preoccupied with itself.

This is the kind of album that is perfect for downloading. A disposable format for a disposable generation. Rip the five songs you like and whack it on an iPod (probably the most useless invention ever) with 5000 other songs by equally bland artists that the NME or MTV have told you to like. Listen to them on the bus on your way to work/school/college, or play it in the background at dinner parties or social gatherings.

This is music as a soundtrack to drudgery... or worse, music as a lifestyle commodity. The kind of record that will appeal to people who think they like music, but really don't.

Moving in the wrong direction
Jonny Borrel's assertion that "if Dylan was making the chips, he was drinking the champagne" in reference to his lyricism was one of the most annoying and obnoxious comments ever made despite the fact it was tongue in cheek, it really is delusional to put yourself above the greatest lyricist of all time when your first album contained the lines "I know a girl with a golden touch/she's got enough she's got too much" and "Hey girl, get on the dance floor/ And rip it up, yeah/That's what it's there for".

However Razorlight themselves are not just Jonny Borrel and their debut album came with enough good hooks and summer hit singles to make them hard to dislike the very antithesis to Borrel's loud mouth, which has made him very easy to dislike. The second album kicks off with `In the morning' which is probably the best song on the album. it sounds like T-rex doing a David Bowie cover and has a very catchy chorus and refrain. The next song `Who Needs love' is also very easy on the ear, with a piano hook and accessible, if not Dylanesque lyrics.

The main problems with their sophomore effort kick in with America, which is a flawed, pompous and overly ambitious song destined to be everywhere soon. The song seems steeped in Borrel's ambitions to break America and whilst the would be anthem features a catchy sing a long chorus, it's lyrically unappealing and cheesy to toxic levels.

Pop song 2006 is even more frightening as it seems Jonny Borrel's admittedly entertaining performance and live 8 seems to have gone to his head. The song aims to capture the spirit of 2006. Although I wasn't aware there was one but if there was, this clearly isn't it. Evidently Borrel's chasing at his ambitions again and this time he's trying to be Bob Geldorf, which is a very dangerous idea for a young song writer and one he must dispense with soon if he wants to be considered a great artist in his own right.

Despite these setbacks Razorlight ends strongly, Kirby's House could have been taken of their, much better, first album and `Los Angeles Waltz' is a lot better than the title suggests. All of this leaves Jonny and the boys with a dilemma, the better songs sounds like belong on 'up all night', while all the worst songs show their very naff new direction, so which way to turn? Should Jonny keep on trying to emulate his heroes Geldorf and Bono? Or should he take a look back and see where his talent really lies? Only the third album will tell