Razorlight

Razorlight arrived in London in 2002 as Johnny Borrell's band, and it has stayed his band: a singer and guitarist with a cocksure yelp and a headful of ambitions, flanked by guitarist Björn Ågren and bassist Carl Dalemo. Their indie rock was wiry and restless, jittery guitars, bouncing basslines and choruses built for singing on the walk home.

Up All Night, the 2004 debut, gave them "Golden Touch", a bright, skipping tune with a hook that just won't quit, and "Somewhere Else" followed in 2005. Andy Burrows had taken over the drums from Shïan Smith-Pancorvo by then, and the self-titled second album in 2006 smoothed the edges into something bigger and shinier: "In the Morning" strutted, and "America", a wistful, slow-building ballad, went all the way to number one in the UK. Slipway Fires, in 2008, brought "Wire to wire", a taut, stripped-down confession.

After that the lineup came apart, with Borrell the only permanent fixture, and the band split in 2014 after three albums on Vertigo Records. They reformed in 2017 and released Olympus Sleeping in 2018.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.