Razorlight singer and chief songwriter (according to him, any way) Johnny Borrell really seems to care what people think about him. Apparently, he records his interviews to make sure he isn’t misquoted and when Razorlight’s frenetic, brilliant debut LP Up All Night was released, you couldn’t read a piece on them without it mentioning that he wanted his band to become the best on the planet. Which may be normal behaviour from a hotly-tipped young band, but Borrell kept on heaping all of the praise on himself rather than his forgotten band-mates.
  
So it should be no surprise that the follow-up album shouts “I’m an epic, take me seriously and say how wonderful I am”. Damn it, though. It is pretty wonderful. Probably. Maybe. Arrgghh. It’s impossible – this album just leaves this reviewer so hot and cold. So, it’s wonderfully stark, full of romantic songs so far detached from Up All Night that Borrell could well have had an Elvis Costello transplant. But then, where’s the energy of this album’s predecessor? The bristling, pent-up furious pop-rock punk that only the Libertines and latterly the Arctic Monkeys bettered? It just isn’t here anymore, as lost to the world as Pete Doherty.

The fury has been replaced by a wistful elegance. The final track, ‘Los Angeles Waltz’ is perhaps the best exponent of this, pushing together a heartbreak verse with an even more heartbreaking chorus, building to a crescendo that may or may not have produced a little sex wee. Borrell’s voice has never sounded better, never so emotive.

First single ‘In the Morning’ and ‘America’ provide the pop outlets – two of the most gracefully-crafted pop songs you’ll hear all year, thrown in with the beautifully meditative ‘Who Needs Love’ and ‘I Can’t Stop This Feeling I’ve Got’. They’re so reflective that you’ll swear you’ve heard these songs before.

Here’s the problem: only ‘Back to the Start’ will get the crowds dancing in the same way as, say, ‘Golden Touch’ or ‘Vice’ did off the first album. The re-working of ‘Kirby’s House’ (originally on 2005’s War Child album) ends up nowhere, next to ‘Pop Song 2006’ and ‘Hold On’. These songs add a slightly vacuous feel to the album – a sense that Borrell was trying just a little too hard to write the perfect collection of songs. He gets pretty close with six of the tracks and, if he learns to relax a little more, he might just achieve the perfect album next time around.
(4/5)

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