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The whole hype around Razorlight just has an aura of a band trying too hard. They want to appear like the natural rock and roll stars they think they were born to be, but it just feels like there's a marketing manager tweaking the strings not too far away. It is a bit like a decade ago, with the second wave of Britpop, and bands like Menswear, except Menswear had a lot more personality.
From their constant airplay on 'the nation's favourite' it seems like that they've been releasing new singles every other week, for the past 6 months. So it is a bit of a surprise that they have 'only' released 4 so far, and these are actually the best tracks on the album. Stumble and Fall and Rip It Up both try for the punk/pop angle and end up with pretty similar results. The first single Rock n' Roll Lies tries to do the disco/punk sound, but Franz Ferdinand do that far, far better. The most recent single Golden Touch, is by far the best of the bunch. As a piece of laid back summer pop it's just right to welcome in the lengthening days.
The rest of the album just show how directionless the band feels. There's Vice, where singer Johnny Borrell is doing his best Springsteen impression, trying to out do Born to Run. For In the City Borrell tries out his White Stripe impression, but again no one can beat Jack White for bluesy rock storytelling.
The album has all the ingredients for a successful 2004 guitar album, but it just doesn't feel right together. But then who would care when there's a marketing budget to place adverts everywhere to sell the album instead?