JOHNNY BORRELL – SINGLE REVIEW


Johnny Borrell – My World, Your Life
Johnny Borrell - My World, Your Life
(Gearbox Records)

Release Date: Out Now

In the press release that goes along with new solo single from Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell there is a link to the premiere on the NME website with a quote from Borrell; “A lot of people who know a lot about music heard this track and told me it was amazing”. Aside from saying “I have many leather-bound books, I’m kind of a big deal” this is pretty much as bold a statement as you could expect from a musician about their own music but, then again, this is Johnny Borrell. ‘My World, Your Life’ is an ambitious tune to unleash on the world, there’s no doubting that, but ambition doesn’t always equal talent. The sloping bass line and tropical rhythms are appealing and Borrell’s vocal is its usual uber-cool self, so far so good. Then come the Cuban horns, so far so funky, and the spoken word that sounds a little like Bono at his most pretentious. At around the four-minute mark there’s a full-on Jazz-Fusion wig-out that, I think, might be supposed to sound like Zappa but it actually just comes across as massively self-indulgent. It’s not the worst track Borrell has ever released and you have to applaud the ambition, but I feel like I might need to be fairly intoxicated and in a baking hot field to fully appreciate this one.


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