Lay Down the Law

Viva La Vida To say there has been a lot of anticipation for Coldplay's fourth album, Viva La Vida, is an understatement. Having enlisted legendary leftfield producer Brian Eno, borrowed their album title from a painting by renowned Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and made tantalising remarks abou...	Consolers Of The Lonely Consolers Of The Lonely follows TheRaconteurs 2006 debut album BrokenBoy Soldiers, which went Top 10, wasGrammy® nominated for Best RockAlbum, and spun off a #1 Modern Rock hit. Led by singer-songwriter-guitarists Jack White of The White Stripes and Brendan Benson, The Raconteur...	Accelerate In the decade since the departure of drummer Bill Berry, R.E.M. could seem at times schizophrenic. Their albums of the era, which veered from the experimentalism of Up and reaffirmation of Reveal to 2004's more diffuse, reflective Around the Sun, often stood in stark contrast to ...	Narrow Stairs Narrow Stairs might be the first album recorded by Death Cab for Cutie since Ben Gibbard's former solo project went unexpectedly stratospheric, but Gibbard hasn't let it go to his head. Oh, OK, maybe a little: lead-off single "I Will Possess Your Heart" is an eight minute jam tha...	Pretty. Odd. The title gives it away instantly- Pretty.Odd. (don't forget the periods) is not exactly the album that affirmed admirers of Panic At The Disco will have expected. The quartet, then teenagers, hit big in 2005 when A Fever You Can't Sweat Out rode its hit single "I Write Sins Not ...
Vampire Weekend It would take a lot for Vampire Weekend's debut to rise above the stench of privileged hype that surrounds it. A bunch of kids who formed the band in their Columbia dorm room borrow wholesale from Afrobeat and angular '80s stuff, and they quickly become an online buzz band before...	Oracular Spectacular The term Oracular Spectacular might not mean much, if anything, at all--it's essentially nonsensical--but that doesn't stop it feeling exactlyright. Here is a band that treats dizzy cross-eyed awe and a vast bounding sense of sonic weightlessness as their yardstick, jostling to s...	Rockferry Rockferry, the Welsh singer's lovingly constructed debut album, has already succeeded beyond expectations, and although Duffy may not quite be the ingénue portrayed by a clever press campaign (she nearly won a local television talent show a few years back while a single credited...	Konk Konk, the second album from indie pop starlets The Kooks, will appeal to those who enjoyed the catchier, hookier elements of their best-selling debut Inside In/Inside Out. For the band are more "pop" than "indie" this time around, and Konk is an overt attempt at winning even more...	The Seldom Seen Kid There are few things in life quite so liberating as the opening track on an Elbow album--they're like airlocks between the plainness of the outside world and the elaborate melancholic heave-ho that you are likely about to submerge yourself in. Following predecessors "Any Day Now"...

Fantastic debut album
I found out about Switches a couple weeks ago after hearing the title track "Lay Down the Law" on a local alt-rock radio station, and have been completely hooked to their sound ever since then. Sounding like a blend between Franz Ferdinand, The Hives, and a cluster of classic rock bands, Switches deliver a fresh style of raw energetic rock which is both catchy and intermittently irresistible to bounce to. The album opens with the single "Drama Queen", which starts the disc off strong and already paves the way for the ten more incredible tracks to follow. Although "Drama Queen" would easily qualify as my favorite song off the album, the quality of Lay Down the Law does not end after track one. It also reaches high points at the title track (an especially Franz Ferdinand-esque jam) and Message from Yuz, which has a massively memorable guitar riff and sounds exceptionally in the style of The Hives (if it had been a Hives song, it would now be my favorite Hives song). The entirety of the CD is not just fun guitar riffs and toe-tappers, however; there are also a couple slightly softer pieces with acoustic guitar such as "Killer Karma", and songs which seem to carry some classic rock vibes and influences such as "The Need to Be Needed". This band seems way too talented to be so obscure, and since they're new to the music scene I predict that they could have some very widely known releases in the future if for some reason this album doesn't gain widespread attention. At any rate, this is a fantastic CD and I highly recommend it to any fan of alt-rock. Five stars.

NICE TO KNOW SOMEONE WAS PAYING ATTENTION
Remember T.Rex? or Sweet? or ELO? Ever wonder what the result would be if their musical influences slept together? Buy this album, and you'll find out by the time the first 20 seconds have elapsed. Good stuff, indeed!