Smith & Burrows - Only Smith & Burrows Is Good Enough (LP)

A decade after their wintery cult favourite Funny Looking Angels, Tom Smith and Andy Burrows reunited for Only Smith & Burrows Is Good Enough, and it lands like a hug you did not realise you needed. Released in February 2021, it traded fireside covers and seasonal melancholy for bright, melodic pop that leans on their long friendship and sharper songcraft. You can hear it from the first spins. Smith’s baritone still carries that slow-burn drama he honed with Editors, while Burrows brings an open, sunlit lilt that seems to lift every chorus. The voices take turns out front, then lock together in harmonies that feel lived-in rather than fussed over.

All the Best Moves sets the tone, all velvet keys, chiming guitars and a hook about dancing when no one is watching. It is sardonic and tender at once. The groove is clean and unfussy, the sort of arrangement that lets the melody breathe. Old TV Shows follows with a nostalgic sway that stops short of sticky sentiment. The lyric nods to the comfort of rituals, the way old sitcoms and shared jokes can stitch time together when everything else is fraying. It is not profound on paper, but the two of them sell it with timing and tone. You can picture them passing a guitar back and forth in a small room, grinning as a line falls into place.

I Want You Back In My Life is the most straight-ahead pop moment here, prizing economy over grand gestures. A crisp beat, tight harmonies, nothing overstays its welcome. Parliament Hill slows the pulse and lets the London skyline creep in. The arrangement is spare at first, almost a postcard, then strings and piano fill the corners. Smith sounds right at home in that reflective space, and Burrows threads in light, almost conversational answers. Across the record there is a tasteful mix of acoustic guitars, piano, handclaps and soft synth colour. Nothing clangs. Nothing shouts. They keep the spotlight on songs, not studio tricks.

What gives the album its quiet pull is what sits between the lines. Two old mates, both with plenty of miles on the board, write about friendship, worry, and small joys without leaning on irony. It arrived in a month when many of us were stuck at home, counting our own small joys, so it hit a bit harder than a side project usually does. That timing is not the whole story though. These tunes have good bones. Even stripped back, they would still work at a pub piano or in a park on a cheap acoustic, and that is the test for this kind of pop.

If you are crate digging, this is a lovely one to bring home on wax. Only Smith & Burrows Is Good Enough vinyl has a warm, open mix that rewards a living room listen, the kind where you actually sit down and let a side play without skipping. The bass sits politely, the vocals are right in the centre, and those little percussion touches feel tactile on a good set-up. If you have been hunting for Smith & Burrows vinyl, this is the keeper, and it sits nicely beside Editors and Razorlight records without feeling like an offcut from either. For anyone looking to buy Smith & Burrows records online, copies still pop up with decent prices, and the pressing quality is steady across reissues. If you prefer to support local, most shops that specialise in vinyl records Australia wide can order it in, and I have spotted it a few times at my favourite Melbourne record store near the corner of Flinders Lane.

The album also works as an entry point for the duo. If you came here via Editors’ stadium-sized shadow or Burrows’ razor-sharp pop instincts from his Razorlight years, this plays like a friendly handshake. It is less about big statements, more about good songs sung well. The sequencing is smart, the pacing kind, and the writing unshowy in the best way. On a playlist, these tracks brighten the mood. As a full listen, they make a modest, convincing case for optimism.

Ten years is a long gap, yet they return sounding nimble, not nostalgic. That might be the best compliment for a collaboration like this. It feels necessary for them, and it quietly becomes necessary for the listener too. If you are sorting through Smith & Burrows albums on vinyl, start here, then circle back to the snow-dusted debut. Different seasons, same chemistry.