Johnny Borrell: ‘Razorlight’s second album f***** Indie music for everyone’

Candid: Johnny Borrell thinks Razorlight 'f*****' Indie music
Samir Hussein/Getty Images
Jennifer Ruby6 April 2016
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Johnny Borrell has admitted that Razorlight’s second album ‘f*****’ Indie music.

The band’s former frontman, who had hits including America and Golden Touch, has said that they ‘opened the floodgates’ for mediocrity.

In a candid interview with Noisey, the 36-year-old credits their 2006 song Before I Fall to Pieces with destroying the genre.

“Here’s where we totally f****** it up for everyone,” Borrell said.

“I think you can kind of say that in 2006, at the start of this video, music was in quite an interesting place. Then three-and-a-half minutes later it's f*****.”

While the singer still has positive things to say about their first album, he seems to think it all went wrong when drummer Andy Burrow joined for the second record.

Latest music reviews

1/168

“I think the second Razorlight album definitely opened the way for a flood of mediocrity in UK music,” he said.

“In my defence, though, people think of Razorlight as some kind of Johnny Borrell solo project, but it was always collaborative.”

Borrell added: “I rate the drummer Andy Burrows. He was a great drummer with a melodic ear – but if you want to figure out who was taking Razorlight in which direction, then maybe have a listen to what we’re each doing now.

“I’m playing psychedelic blues-tango, and his stuff is so middle of the road it’s got more white lines than Liam Gallagher in 1997.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in