''Up All Night'' is the debut album by English
indie rock
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produc ...
band
Razorlight
Razorlight are an English indie rock band, formed in 2002 in London by lead singer and guitarist Johnny Borrell. Along with Borrell, the current line-up of the band is composed of founding members Björn Ågren on guitar and bassist Carl Delemo ...
, released on 28 June 2004. The album was mainly recorded at
Sawmills Studio and mixed at Sphere Studios by
John Cornfield
John Richard Cornfield (born 10 December 1958 in Epsom, Surrey) is a British record producer and sound engineer. He has been working from Sawmills Studios in Cornwall since 1982.
Discography As sound engineer or sound assistant
* The Dukes of S ...
.
The album garnered favourable reviews but critics questioned the band's influence-filled musicianship throughout the tracks. ''Up All Night'' peaked at number 3 on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
and spawned six
singles: "
Rock 'N' Roll Lies", "
Rip It Up", "
Stumble and Fall", "
Golden Touch", "
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character t ...
" and "
Somewhere Else".
On 4 June 2014, the band, with only lead singer
Johnny Borrell
Jonathan Edward Borrell (born 4 April 1980) is an English guitarist and singer, currently the frontman of the rock band Razorlight.
Early life and career
Borrell was born in Sutton, London. His father, New Zealand-born John Borrell, was a war ...
remaining from the line-up which recorded the album, played at the
Electric Ballroom
The Electric Ballroom is a 1,500-capacity performance venue (primarily for rock bands) and indoor market located at 184 Camden High Street in Camden Town, London, England.
History
The Electric Ballroom started as an Irish ballroom in the 1930 ...
in
Camden to mark ''Up All Night''s 10th anniversary.
Critical reception
''Up All Night'' received positive reviews but
music critics were divided by the overall musicianship resembling that of bands both classic and contemporary. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, which assigns a
normalised rating out of 100 to mainstream critics, the album received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
score of 65 based on 16 reviews.
Tim Jonze of ''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' gave the album high praise for Johnny Borrell's sharp street poetry and the band's instrumentation for giving Borrell the right amount of strength and control to sing them, saying that "For all its flaws, ''Up All Night'' bristles with passion, energy and, most importantly, amazing songs."
Rob Sheffield of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' praised Borrell for backing up his bravado with tracks that exude tight lyrics and optimism, saying that "''Up All Night'' is a brilliant mod explosion of scruffy pub punk, in the mode of his old friends the
Libertines."
Dorian Lynskey of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' said the album's various influence-filled tracks get by on Borrell being able to deliver them with gusto and conviction, concluding that "Originality may not be Razorlight's strong point, but Borrell's raw charisma carries the day."
Richard Banks of
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
praised the band's commitment to delivering upbeat three-chord punk tracks while still being to able to make it wholly original, concluding that "With a debut this good, Razorlight are a band that deserve to do very, very well."
'' was mixed about the album, saying that the band utilize the basic rock 'n' roll formula to craft catchy tracks but then they sputter out in terms of inspiration to create nondescript material. He concluded with, "This is a good debut album—no more, no less. The second album could very well be as good as they think this one is. But they’re going to have to wait a while before they get what they so desire."
'' said that a majority of the album's tracks that utilize the hedonistic party tale formula work and that any diversions from it fall flat, saying that "though they lack the rapid-fire consistency of their predecessors, they've put together a likable, if completely unoriginal rock record that's sure to get even the dullest of parties onto the police blotter."
, and criticised Borrell's vocal delivery for impersonating said bands' frontmen with no passion, concluding that "Razorlight refuse to meet their influences with anything more than half hugs and limp handshakes, butchering the bits they brazenly borrow, and taking rock 'n' roll apathy to formerly unbelievable lengths."
" (13 September 2004)
#*''"Rip It Up" was re-released on 29 November 2004 as the last single from the album's initial release.''
#"