Razorlight share upbeat new single ‘Taylor Swift = US Soft Propaganda’
Razorlight have shared a quirky new single called ‘Taylor Swift = US Soft Propaganda’ – check it out below.
Announced today (October 4), the track marks the latest single the band have shared from ‘Planet Nowhere’ – their first album with the classic line-up since 2008.
Coming in at two minutes long, the song comes as an upbeat anthem for the album, and sees frontman Johnny Borrell deliver his charismatic vocals on top of a summer-inspired guitar riff.
“This sounds like a filler on a Jonathan Richman album / which means this is probably the best song we’re gonna put on this one,” he says in the tongue-in-cheek opening lines.
Despite the title, the lyrics of the song actually don’t mention pop sensation Taylor Swift at all – something the band joke helps them avoid being cursed with what the frontman calls “The Taylor Swift fatwa”.
“We were in the studio and Björn went in to record a guitar overdub on ‘Zombie Love’. He started playing this riff, I said ‘What’s that?’. He said ‘I dunno”. I said ‘Keep playing it’,” Borrell said, recalling how the song developed.
“So Björn kept on playing and I pushed record and sang it in one take while he played it. When you’re recording an album there’s always a song that pops up out of nothing. Regarding the title, there hasn’t been an empire in history that hasn’t required propaganda, why should America be any different?”
Check out the song in full below.
Since the album was announced earlier this year, Razorlight have drawn attention for the controversially-named song.
Speaking to NME about their upcoming album, the band discussed why they opted to call the new song ‘Taylor Swift = US Soft Propaganda’.
“I went back to the Basque country where I live and promptly forgot about being a musician for five weeks. My girlfriend asked me: ‘Are you writing anything?’ and I just laughed. I hadn’t even thought about it until she put it in my mind. I picked up a guitar and, honestly, pretty much everything else happened. ‘Taylor Swift’ popped out in about 10 seconds,” Borell said.
“When we’re recording, I always write down things people say. Finishing that song in the studio, I saw a bit of paper that said: ‘Taylor Swift = US Soft Propaganda’. If you want me to comment on Taylor Swift specifically, I’m not sure I really can, because I don’t know much about her.”
After being told that Swift fans and more would be all over that song title, the frontman shared: “Sure. Like I say, I don’t know much about Taylor Swift. But I like to take the reality of the creative process and keep it. And with a lot of albums, people start off wanting to say things then, once people start saying: ‘Oh, that’s controversial, what will people say about that?’ Everything starts to get smoothed out. In 2024, what’s the point?
“I want to stay true. Every step of the way on this album, what was happening in the studio is what you get. That piece of paper is a joke someone thought was funny at the time. So, why not?”
‘Planet Nowhere’ is set for release on October 25 and available for pre-order here. To celebrate the album, the band are set to embark on a record store tour, and underplay tour, as well as make a guest appearance with the Kaiser Chiefs in Leeds next summer.
Find a full list of dates below and visit here for tickets.
Razorlight’s upcoming UK tour dates are:
OCTOBER – Record store tour
25 – London, Rough Trade East (7pm)
26 – Leamington Spa, Head Records (1pm)
26 – Birmingham, HMV Vault (5pm)
27 – Bristol, Rough Trade (7pm)
29 – Bury, Wax and Beans (1pm)
29 – Manchester, HMV (5pm)
30 – Liverpool, Jacaranda (7pm)
31 – Newcastle, Beyond Vinyl (7pm)
OCTOBER – Underplay tour dates:
18 – Birmingham, Castle & Falcon
19 – Edinburgh, Mash House
20 – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
21 – Manchester, Band on the Wall
22 – Brighton, Komedia
24 – Bristol, Strange Brew
NOVEMBER
21 – London, O2 Academy Brixton (with special guests Mystery Jets)
MAY 2025
31 – Leeds, Temple Newsam Park (with Kaiser Chiefs)
Elsewhere in the chat with NME, the band reflected on their debut album ‘Up All Night’ and their upcoming 20th-anniversary show at Brixton Academy in celebration of the LP.
Released on June 28, 2004, ‘Up All Night’ peaked at Number Three in the UK Official albums charts and went on to sell over 1.2million copies. The album spawned six singles: ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Lies’, ‘Rip It Up’, ‘Stumble And Fall’, ‘Golden Touch’, ‘Vice’ and ‘Somewhere Else’.
Reviewing the album, NME said at the time: “Razorlight’s debut packs more tunes than Franz [Ferdinand]’s, more spirit than The Strokes and more balls than nearly every band out there right now.”
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Liberty Dunworth
NME
