Planet Nowhere＜限定盤/Colored Vinyl＞

Britains Razorlight embrace the nervy rock of their early work on 2024s Planet Nowhere. The album is the groups fifth and first to feature the classic Razorlight lineup in over a decade. Along with lead singer Johnny Borrell, returning are guitarist Bjorn Agren, bassist Carl Dalemo, and drummer Andy Burrows, all of whom left the band around 2009/2010 and who returned around 2019. Produced by founding Killing Joke bassist Martin Glover, aka Youth, Planet Nowhere finds Razorlight digging into the kind of melodic post-punk that made albums like 2006s Razorlight and 2008s Slipway Fires unexpected delights. Here, cuts like "Zombie Love," "U Can Call Me," and "Scared of Nothing" have a refreshingly loose, off-the-cuff vibe, as if the band jammed each song into shape in a basement. Elsewhere, tracks like "F.O.B.F." and "Cyclops" nicely illuminate the groups long-standing influences, evoking a blend of Mott the Hooples 70s, pub-friendly glitter rock and the more contemporary, dance-punk style of the Strokes. With Planet Nowhere, Razorlight have made an album of catchy, no-nonsense anthems that capture the fizzy, garage-rock swagger of their best work. ~ Matt Collar