Coda.fm

Up All Night

by Razorlight

• Buy it at Amazon.com

Razorlight's debut album largely delivers on the promise of its successful UK singles, four of which form the core of this equally stripped-to-the-essentials collection. Singer Johnny Borrell may have played the English music press hype sweepstakes like a champion, but his self-aggrandizing swagger seems more like a shrewd focusing technique here. Standouts like "Vice," the title track and bright, crafty single "Golden Touch" show there's much more to the band than its early Strokes/Television comparisons, while guitarist Bjorn Arens' clean, urgent slashing argues that three-chord rock can still be about as simple as a nervous breakdown. The album's youthful, urban-hedonism obsessions may rankle more jaded ears, even as the garage rave-up throwback "In the City" finds the manic, word-tripping Borrell suggesting Dylan fronting the Yardbirds. If Borrell's motor-mouth tendencies sometimes get the best of him (especially on ballads like "Fall, Fall, Fall" and "Dalston"), his sense of punk-smart dramaturgy is nigh-perfect foil for his band's brash, keep-it-simple-not-slick verve. --Jerry McCulley