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An excerpt from "America" by Razorlight

“The songs on the radio sound the same/Everybody just looks the same,” gripes Razorlight singer/guitarist Johnny Borrell on “In the Morning,” the leadoff single from the his band’s sophomore full-length. Careful there, guy! After all, you’re not so far off from being guilty of sameness. Borrell and his band are following 2004’s Up All Night, the saucy but somewhat stock garage-rock debut that split shiny, dueling guitars and heavy backbeat with relationship paranoia and a partytime comedown vibe. The results made for something akin to Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker fronting the Strokes. It was a lot of fun and proved them one of the brighter lights among England’s current crop of bands, but hardly showed them too be reinventing the rock lexicon. So maybe it’s just a little tough to listen to a lad bemoaning homogeny when he’s arguably part of the problem. Maybe he doesn’t see things that way. On the self-titled second album, Razorlight are certainly out to make a break from the pack. It’s a moderately ambitious album inasmuch as it seems they were out to make a lyrical, mature statement while at the heart craft an unpretentious, poppy record. Along the way things get a bit garbled. “In the Morning” is the perfect opening bouncy gem, all fun and charm. “Who Needs Love?” follows as a jaunty, piano-fuelled, blissful goodbye to romance, while “Hold On” revels in Motown-inspired rhythm and glee. I’d always heard the cheekiness of aforementioned Jarvis Cocker in Borrell’s swaggering vocals. Now I’m getting a healthy twinge of the trembling Irish tenor of Undertone Feargal Sharkey, particularly with “Fall to Pieces,” where Borrell implores a jilting lover over a panicky guitar line. So I’m really liking this record…and then I start to hear the downsides. Borrell’s outsider statement on “America” completely derails a song already dully dragging in mellow, mid-tempo-ness. “Los Angeles Waltz,” another boring story/statement song that needlessly namechecks Kings of Leon, makes me wonder why all these cool English blokes repeatedly reference the USA, It’s doing them no good. A cod-reggae beat at the core of “Back to the Start” is another one of Razorlight’s weaknesses: Here’s a mediocre song that is further troubled by a shifting tempo. When Razorlight isn’t thinking too hard, they’re really great, and this album soars in those moments of lithe, uncomplicated, semi-confectionary pop rock. There’s unfortunately just enough lead tethering this album to the ground to keep it from going too far and too high.