Slipway Fires

Obvious improvements in Razorlight’s playing

The band Razorlight which has spent quite a lot of time to conquer the fame of an original team that deserves attention today is itself an example to follow for many a beginning artist. Despite the fact that its front man Johnny Borrell is still the object to criticizing for his big ego his professional and personal growth has been but obvious on the collective’s sophomore effort Razorlight released in 2006 and is still continuing. The best way to confirm that os the band’s third record Slipway Fires, one of the year’s most anticipated releases. Certainly all the members of Razorlight demonstrate significant improvement on Slipway Fires of both matched playing and the faultless combination of instrumental background and the vocal parts. As for the lyrics there is a notable progress here as well: simplicity and frankness combine with unusual metaphors. Besides it is on Slipway Fires that Borrell is not showing off so much for first time and even shares some of his most personal problems.

Definitely a much more serious work Slipway Fires

The album opens with the splendid first single Wire To Wire, a slow piano composition filled with emotions the main of them being a desire to be loved while Hostage Of Love – a way to claim that sometimes a performer’s sincerity may turn against him – is a somewhat more rhythmic creation with a vivid chorus. Wonderful and penetrating guitars on You And The Rest combine marvelously with faultless guitars whereas a contagious mid-tempo composition Tabloid Lover is remarkable for an interesting text about a guy too fond of reading tabloids. The first track on which Borrell tells something about himself is the autobiographic North London Trash. One should name ballad Stinger among the album’s highlights for although Johnny allows himself rather arrogant statements one can hear so much despair and pain in his voice that it seems more appropriate to sympathize with him instead of criticizing. Track Burberry Blue Eyes full of reminiscences about a failed attraction to a school girlfriend surprises with the front man’s great singing with quite a complicated accompaniment and a contagious song Monster Boots is refined with his amazing falsetto that little have expected from him. The record closes with the frankest song The House, telling of what makes Borrell feel sad most of all, i.e. his father’s death. On the whole there are both complicated and easy-going tracks among the 12 songs of Slipway Fires but this is definitely a much more serious work than both of the previous ones.

Borrell’s less scornful singing and more mature vocals

It is quite probable that if it were not for such a front man of Razorlight as is Johnny its albums would never be appreciated by anybody at all. It is by provoking the audience without being afraid to exaggerate that he has managed to attract its attention. So it is but logic that the accents on the third album are made not so much on his persona as on the team as a whole. Yet ironically as it may seem the main news about Razorlight is Borrell’s singing which is not anymore that scornful as before and the vocals have acquired some more mature notes. As a result we have Slipway Fires, an album on which it is rather hard to find failure tracks although of course there are certain rough edges on some of them. The tunes are not to be remembered from the first listening but as soon as you hear the songs you like most for the second time you are sure to sing along. On each track, moreover, on each syllable, one can hear how important the result is for the whole band and it does stand high. For now Slipway Fires is Razorlight’s best album but this collective possesses such potentials that we can be sure: its following creation will be even better.