Thoughts on Razorlight...

I thought with the new album coming out, now was a perfect time for me to share some of my musings (exceptional word) on Razorlight. I got a little sucked into the hype about their new LP and looked forward to hearing 'the best guitar album since Definitely Maybe'. However while I'm not sure about that claim from Q magazine, the new album has reminded me how much I love this band and it also made me revisit their amazing debut, 'Up All Night'.

Now that to me, ladies and gents, is the best straight-up rock n roll album I own. It is a pure modern classic with tunes and tales that I still obsess over. It also holds some sentimentality for me too, as it reminds of several different things:

1. Shutt's house a couple of years back
Before I really figured the band out (that happened a few months later), I used to go round to Shutts to tonk him and others (usually everyone bar Pattinson, he's a nightmare to beat) at PES.

There was a period when all he used to play was Up All Night and it sort of lodged in my head. He always used to play it fairly quietly to incase his folks were off to sleep and I remember sitting watching the likes of Welshy and Shutt battle it out while the likes of Don't Go Back To Dalston and Fall, Fall, Fall were whispering out of his CD/alarm-clock thingy.

2. My girlfriend
Well, first of all Ana bought me the album but there's more to it than that. I think I wouldn't be wrong in thinking it was the first album me and her grew to love together (Silent Alarm was another one, but that was a few months later). It also reminds me of A because she loves Rip It Up. Which is good, as it is a fucking tune.

3. December '04
Getting the album off her also linked into a bigger event. She had also bought me tickets to see the band support the Manics at Nottingham Arena. It was a great gig and I think it was seeing Razorlight there (I stupidly missed them when they played my university 'before they were famous') that really got me into the band. They were electrifying, playing like it was their gig not the Manics'. It was after that I listened to Up All Night more and realised how brilliant the songs were.

When I want to hear a perfect album (the perfect length, flawless songs, brilliant performance), I often put Up All Night on. It's an album that sounds equally brilliant whether played full blast or down low. That's one thing I realise when I listen to it in my room at night now. The loose, spontaneous feel of it makes it rather good to chill out to as well as rock out to.

The words, the attitude and the music for me make Up All Night the perfect rock n roll album. If, when I'm old and grey, listening to the new Razorlight album brings back as many cool memories as their first album did, I'd be a happy, old and grey man.