[3/5] Throughout 13 mashed-potato rock songs that lump from silly power ballads to bluesy swingers, new wave toss-offs to disco-rock insanity, Electric Six's resident raving carnival barker and notorious loverman Dick Valentine winks and jokes his way hoarse on a spiritual guided tour of the underworld, both literally (the haunted slow burner "The Band In Hell") and figuratively ("I Buy The Drugs"). But everything on Switzerland is kept so tongue-in-cheek, it starts to seem like the song structures and arrangements themselves are supposed to be funny. Can a drum fill be ironic? (When Hitler's behind the kit and the devil is on guitar, it can.) Sure, you'll chuckle when the piano clunks intentionally out of tune on one song, and some of Valentine's more offensive lyrical bits land a laugh, but the best we can say is: For a bunch of comedians, the Electric Six sure are talented musicians. (METROPOLIS) Luke O'Neil
 Official Website: http://www.metropolis-records.com
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