Switches
Lay Down The Law
Interscope Records
By Justin Porter Stephens
Listening to Switches is sort of an experience in style over substance. They sing songs about girls and drugs. They have British accents, a cocky swagger, designer clothes and dancey guitars. They've even done that silly there's-no-'the'-before-our-band-name-even-though-it's-a-plural-noun thing. They just don't have the hooks.
At times you'll get the feeling that you've heard Lay Down the Law before. That's partly because Switches released the same album in Europe under the title Heart Tuned to D.E.A.D. last year but mostly because you've probably heard that Franz Ferdinand band once or twice over the past few years. In fact, the opener, "Drama Queen", (there's a lot of clichés and silly play on words that get thrown around on this record, starting with the LP's title) sounds like a b-side off of You Could Have It So Much Better.
I don’t mean to be nasty here, because at times Switches’ impression is right on. The boys start to hit their stride on the title track, wrapping snappy guitar lines around each other throughout the entire song and its “We lay down the law, so what the hell are you here for?” refrain is fun at first, but you’ll probably be embarrassed if caught singing along at a red light with your windows down. “Coming Down” sticks to a similar formula, but replaces the aforementioned guitar work with a squeaky, fun synthesizer.
There’s a reoccurring paradox that keeps Lay Down the Law from reaching any sort of great height: Switches write edgy lyrics and surround them with rough, raw guitars and driving drums yet the production of the album is crystal clean. I can't understand why bands—and Switches isn't the only one, there are perhaps hundreds of other guilty bands out of the same genre—who make a conscious effort to keep a tough guy rep in their songwriting, yet preppy-up the production by harmonizing every last backing vocal, cleaning up each distortion setting, and using studio magic on every dropped note. It's not that Lay Down the Law is boring, it's that you've heard it all before. And a little bit better.
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