Up All Night

‘Up All Night’ is one of the most hotly anticipated albums of 2004, coming, as it does, from one of the finest young rock’n’roll bands to emerge in Britain for many long years – Razorlight. Led by the charismatic Johnny Borrell, Razorlight have spent much of 2003 and 2004 grabbing headlines, releasing sharp sounding singles and generally behaving like the greatest band that ever walked the earth.

The album has taken a colossal effort to create, doused in blood, sweat and whiskey, it has prompted the departure of their drummer Christian Smith-Pancorvo and the absconding of producers, and sounds like a rule book for living life on the edge. ‘Up All Night’ contains thirteen songs of majestic pop perfection that straddle the themes of tragedy, jealousy, addiction and debauchery and is quite possibly the finest debut album since ‘Definitely Maybe’.

The divine singles are all here ‘Rock’n’Roll Lies’ still sounds like the work of godlike genius whilst ‘Stumble & Fall’, ‘Rip It Up’ and ‘Golden Touch’ prove there is no end to their talent for songcraft. The album though, features a plethora of equally astounding tunes. From the acid-etched swagger of ‘Leave Me Alone’ through the arty punk stylings of ‘Which Way Is Out’ and the anthemic ‘In The City’ this has modern classic written all over it. Elsewhere the beautiful ‘Hang By, Hang By’, the awesome ‘Vice’ and the phenomenal title track prove that Razorlight just don’t know how to write filler.

This album really is a treat and anyone who listens to it will know that it is more than we have any right to expect. Razorlight are destined to follow their peers The Libertines into legendary status and, with any luck, will avoid their mistake ridden rise to become a truly era defining band. This record will not only keep you up all night, it’ll have you dancing all year.