Even while holding down drumming duties in Razorlight, Andy Burrows has always maintained a separate lane for his own records. He is now ready to release his first proper solo album in seven years. Titled Map Of The World, the collection will arrive on January 29, 2027, through his own label imprint, Free Pass Records.
The first preview of the set comes in the shape of Nothing Matters Anyway, a concise, upbeat track driven by seventies pop arrangements and thick layers of vocal harmonies. We Are Scientists guitarist Keith Murray provides the guitar work. Despite a title that might sound fatalistic on paper, Burrows framed the track as something liberating. As he explained, the idea is supposed to feel freeing rather than negative, serving as an antidote to the endless energy people pour into worrying about external validation. With mobile phones and social media feeds magnifying that stress, the song finds comfort in the sudden realization that nobody else is actually paying that much attention.
Burrows handled the songwriting by himself, cutting the material primarily inside his Gloucestershire home studio. Even so, the recording process grew into an open gathering of family and long-term peers. His younger brother Ben and daughter Joni both contributed to the sessions alongside Murray. Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire also features on the album, having provided the record with its very name. Burrows lifted the title Map Of The World from a collection of phrases and lyrics that Wire had written out in gold lettering and shared with him.
Another recurring partner surfaces on the tracklist for Seriously, which features Editors vocalist Tom Smith. The two musicians have sustained a side project as Smith and Burrows for well over a decade. That partnership first surfaced with the winter release Funny Looking Angels in 2011, before the pair eventually reconvened ten years later for their follow-up, Only Smith and Burrows Is Good Enough.
Map Of The World marks Burrows' first full solo outing since 2019, when he joined forces with writer Matt Haig on Reasons To Stay Alive. That collaborative set explored mental health struggles while consciously steering clear of sentimentality, an approach Burrows praised at the time for offering unvarnished optimism and meeting common anxieties head-on.
Between his pop and rock releases, Burrows has spent considerable time building an extensive catalog of film and television music. He worked with Ilan Eshkeri on the score for the animated holiday special The Snowman And The Snowdog, while also striking up a steady creative alliance with Ricky Gervais. That working relationship led to soundtracks for the feature film David Brent: Life On The Road, the series After Life, and the Netflix project Alley Cats.
The new solo venture comes during an active stretch for his primary band. Razorlight's original core of Burrows, singer Johnny Borrell, guitarist Björn Ågren, and bassist Carl Dalemo reunited in 2021 after a lengthy separation. They followed that return with their 2024 album Planet Nowhere, their first studio release together since Slipway Fires back in 2008, alongside plans to tour for the twentieth anniversary of their self-titled sophomore record. Balancing that full schedule, Burrows continues to carve out a distinct identity of his own.
