Razorlight Razor What? The Best Of Vinyl LP 2022
1. Golden Touch
2. In The Morning
3. Who Needs Love?
4. Before I Fall To Pieces
5. Violence Forever?
6. Stumble And Fall
7. America
8. Somewhere Else
9. You Are Entering The Human Heart
10. Rip It Up
11. Good Night
12. Wire To Wire
13. Don’t Go Back To Dalston
It was back in April 2021 when Johnny Borrell, Andy Burrows, Björn Ågren and Carl Dalemo revealed they’d been back working together for the first time in over a decade, correcting the unsatisfactory conclusion to their original formation.
Crucial to the group’s reunion was an emotional meeting between Borrell and Burrows near Johnny’s home in the Basque country in summer, 2020, which plays a pivotal part in the groups forthcoming ‘Fall To Pieces’ documentary, premiering on November 4th at the Genesis Cinema in Whitechapel & is part of this year's Raindance film festival.
“I had to go and chat with Johnny and make things good,” recalls Burrows. “If I didn’t, I’d have gone on thinking about it for the rest of my life, that we should’ve met up, we should’ve played together again, it was too special to leave behind.”
Bridges have been built. The artistic, and sometimes unwieldy, connection between the two has been re-established. It has been a heartening experience for those involved. “My trust with Andy was at absolute zero so to get that back was really inspiring,” says Borrell. “That’s never happened before and it made me think a lot about my life, like if I can get my trust back with Andy, I could do it with anybody.” “Whilst our relationship hasn’t always been plain sailing, when Johnny and I sit down to write music together, there’s a magic that happens. I’m so grateful to have him and the band back in my life,” agrees Burrows.
The first fruits of their revitalised creativity came with the one-off single ‘Call Me Junior’ earlier this year, a punchy, energetic indie-rock gem, and two new songs on Razorwhat? broaden the sonic horizons further.
Lead single ‘You Are Entering The Human Heart’ is bittersweet piano-pop that, in a sweet summation of their coming back together, features duel vocals from Borrell and Burrows. “Andy played it to me and I was like, ‘this sounds like a hit groove’,” says Borrell. “I produced it and I feel really proud of it.” “It was a really collaborative experience doing that track,” says Burrows. “I think it’s a great pop song.” The snarling ‘Violence Forever?’, meanwhile, was born out of a searing guitar riff from Ågren and captures the raw intensity of the quartet in a room together. Both bode well for the future. “I think our best single is one we haven’t done yet,” says Borrell. “Hopefully we’ll do the Best Of and get more music out next year, then tour in the spring. It’s gonna be interesting, that’s all I can say.”
Never a dull moment. Writing a new ending for themselves, Razorlight are back to cast out the boring in your life.