On Sale Now
For

The members of Razorlight have thumbed through more racks at their local music store than have most of their contemporaries, who sometimes give the impression of having spent years lip-synching in the mirror to the same handful of records. Razorlight's record collection isn't as diverse as current retro champs The White Stripes, but the band mixes together enough sounds and influences to separate it from most of the pack.

There is almost as much of the 80s in Up All Night as there is of the 70s. Even the 70s-influenced material is more varied than what most retro rockers are turning out, taking as many pointers from The Cars as from Iggy Pop and The Stooges. Finally, a group that thinks being a rock 'n' roll band is a blast, not a burden.

The album's first single, "Golden Touch," is relaxed and straightforward, confident enough to let an easy-going bass line carry it along, with only a string coda thrown in for ornamentation. Like most of the songs on Up all Night, "Golden Touch" simmers with tension, but rarely boils over into obligatory rock rage.

Razorlight has the good taste to appreciate not only the Velvet Underground, heroes to virtually all retro bands, but also to like Velvet alum Lou Reed's solo work. On "In the City," singer Johnny Borrell adopts Reed's beat-poet rapping to tell a collage of urban stories like those on Transformer or the underrated New York. Although shorter than five minutes, "In the City" is sprawling and epic. It careens from a crowded urban landscape to the singer's personal search for a missing love, from a coffee shop vocal and guitar intro to a blitzing, garage-rock stomp finish.

But what city are we in? Reed had New York, a city whose street characters inspired much of his music, while owing part of their view of themselves to the mythos that Reed's music created. Razorlight's members come from London and Sweden, but there isn't any flavor of either locale in the band's music. Having thoroughly digested the albums of their predecessors, the band has yet to find a voice of its own.

Razorlight is late to the retro-rock party. The band has shown up just as fans are looking to leave, in search of a new sound. This English-Swedish conglomerate is good enough to make us stick around at the party for another drink. What will they do now that they have our attention?

Copyright © 2010 ModernRock.com All Rights Reserved