Razorlight

Eden Sessions

Review by Lee Trewhela

A STUNNING light show may have ended proceedings with the biomes sparkling to perfection but there was one star that outshone everything at Thursday’s second Eden Session.

That shining light was Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell – unfortunately he only illuminates his own little world.

Kimberly Middleton interviews Razorlight.

The rest of us have to make do with a fair to middling songwriter in a fair to middling rock band who have delusions of grandeur but really are guttersnipe style over substance.

Sporting sunglasses throughout and barely speaking to the audience (he did say he’d like to play at Eden every night, but sounded oddly unconvincing), this was a totally disengaged performance.

There was nothing wrong with it – the band are tight, new flailing drummer David Skully more than makes up for the loss of Andy Burrows and Borrell has a way with a rousing chorus (America, In The Morning etc).

It just didn’t feel like a headline performance worthy of a £40 ticket. Come on, this is Eden, the best venue in the world when a band’s on fire – Kasabian proved that last week. Razorlight simply didn’t rise to the occasion.

The introduction of screens on either side of the stage was a great addition but it meant seeing the Borrell ego in full – it really doesn’t need any extra inflation.

Razorlight are in the novel position of getting worse with every album – so early tracks like the spiky Stumble and Fall and Rip It Up were the undoubted standouts while the songs from last year’s Slipway Fires (Wire To Wire, Hostage of Love, Glory of Love) were meandering and overblown.

Razorlight were much more convincing when reacquainting a British indie audience with the sound of Television and New York new wave than they are going all Springsteen meets Sting.

This was my least favourite Eden Session yet, but what do I know as the crowd lapped it up and as a traditional, somewhat middle of the road rock show it did its job.

The Maccabees, supporting, had more ideas than the headliners but the sausages I had in the biome restaurant were the most memorable part of the night.

Kimberly Middleton interiews the Maccabees.

But at least the bars worked to perfection this time and it was great to see some Cornwall-based acts like Louis Eliot and Ben Howard dotted around the site – more of that please.

To see the slideshow, click here