Johnny Borrell, the former frontman/obnoxious mouthpiece of the now-defunct Razorlight, has sold just 594 copies of his debut solo album – failing to even make it into the UK’s Top 100 Album Chart.
The album, titled Borrell 1, received decidedly mixed reviews, but considering the success of Razorlight you could’ve been forgiven for assuming that Borrell’s solo effort would achieve at least a modicum of success. Unfortunately, the man who once claimed that he was a better songwriter than Bob Dylan – despite penning a song that contained the lyrical couplet “well I go out somewhere, then I come home again” – has fallen flat on his face with his first effort away from the band that made him famous.
Borrell 1 was the first in a planned series of solo albums for the singer, though judging from these sales figures that seems unlikely now. Its failure mimics that of Razorlight’s last LP, Slipway Fires, which was almost universally panned and saw the band’s record label refuse to release another album of theirs. Speaking to NME of Razorlight’s demise, Borrell said: “We really felt we had a record that we wanted to put out, but my label was very fractured and it was very hard to communicate with them. The label was focused on having a super-mega hit, and unless I played them a ‘Golden Touch’ or ‘America’ they wouldn’t let me make a record. All I was trying to do was make a good record.”
Looks like you’ll have to try a little harder, Johnny.
Photo: Getty Images
