Those who remember the self-aggrandising extremes of Britpop with more horror than amusement won’t look kindly on London-based fantasists Razorlight, who frontman Johnny Borrell recently claimed were better than Dylan. Inevitably, such pushiness reflects badly on Up All Night: with less hyperbole and gutter-visionary pretension, Borrell’s competent if hygienised NYC punk knock-offs (“In The City” is a comical rewrite of “Gloria”) might be more palatable.
Brighton’s Ordinary Boys, meanwhile, stick rigidly to the retro-parochial spirit of ’95, combining delusions of significance with nice Fred Perrys and a dogged affection for The Jam and The Smiths. It’s a full-blooded effort, but has all the culturally transformative quality of Shed Seven. In this context, you can see why people love The Libertines so desperately.