2008 was a different world to the present, it was the year Spotify launched, making it the birth of a different musical landscape fuelled by technology. An all too different landmark event occurred for Johnny Foreigner in 2008, they released their full length debut 'Waited up till it was Light on Best Before Records.
Now some 14 years later a long awaited repress and re-release of the album is being issued via Alcopop Records. Upon the announcement last year, there was no doubt a collective wave of excitement from now gracefully ageing fans. Many put their orders in for a second physical copy to replace their now battered and war-torn originals all before collectively thinking in collective unison – “How does the record hold up?”
Frankly the world is missing a lot of what Waited Up ‘Till It Was Light offers. A record so perfectly blended between an optimistic attitude towards adult tribulations and sobering truths of a life more ordinary. All these relatable things wrapped up in catchy riffs and catchier gang vocal mantras, from L’ea Room’s ‘Get Up’ before the ‘Ship Goes Down’ past the “your life is a song but not this one” of ‘Eyes Wide Terrified’ straight into the endlessly quotable soliloquay outro of ‘Salt, Peppa and Spindarella’.
Waited Up Til It Was Light is packed with the kind of energy & melody only untamed noise-pop could muster, and sports a tracklist more consistent than the singles and EP remnants of the record that streaming services have provided over the last decade. In particular, ‘Hennings Favourite’ is a sound for sore ears and missed all too well. The absence of this track with others (‘Yr All Just Jealous’ & ‘Sometimes in the Bullring’ to name a few) from modern music outlets really does make this re-release something to celebrate.
Re-releases are so often fiscally motivated slaps of nostalgia but thankfully this is not the case of Waited Up Til It Was Light, a release that came about just as the relationships between labels, artists, distributors & consumers changed forever. For any original fan of the band it’s a welcome reunion with a lost friend, whilst for new comers it serves as a time capsule, a reminder of a time less jaded but no less pragmatic, a time when intricate melodies and chorus’ full of super-charged pop sensibilities laced in guitars with no fear of adulteration could be the soundtrack to an entire era in outgrowing adolescents. From a period of pop-culture obsessed with coming-of-age ‘Waited Up Til It Was Light’ is the sonic-guide to self-introspection and celebration of whatever may come.