• More Major Lazer news, reviews, videos and tour dates
• Buy Major Lazer music from Amazon
• Major Lazer news RSS Feed

7 / 10 Don’t believe everything you get told at school. You can’t get pregnant just by sitting on a toilet seat, excessive masturbation won’t make you go blind (although, Lord knows, if you are still at school, you’ll try) and there is nothing intrinsically valuable in wilfully eclectic taste. The type of kids who are bragging about being into Mastodon, Masta Ace, Tiny Masters Of Today and all points in between, those ascetic obscurants are the same people who, 15 years from now, will come home to their achingly ephemera-stuffed flat, gaze lovingly at their 10,000-strong record collection and spend yet another night not listening to any of it. Eclecticism sucks. Find your own, specific musical vein and mine it deep, kids – it’s more satisfying and it’s much easier to get laid too.

This doesn’t bode well for Major Lazer’s debut, a wildly esoteric collaboration between the achingly hip Diplo of Philadelphia and the equally fashionable Brit Switch. Between them they have ties to Santigold, MIA, Bonde Do Rolê, Spank Rock and all manner of other puddles of modern toss. In addition, they’ve done that annoying modern smart-arse pop thing of inventing a fictional character (Major Lazer, Jamaican commando, zombie war veteran, lasers for arms, blah blah blah) to accompany the record, which may be terribly nowadaysy and multimedia, but it actually suggests a lack of faith in the actual music. So it’s really
a bit of an arse to have to report that, for all of the above, ‘Guns Don’t Kill…’ tends generally towards the ace, being as it is a blistering, frenetic runaway tube ride through 20-odd years of dancefloor and dancehall.

With its chief ingredients being ragga, reggaeton and the more brutal end of Miami Bass, it’s fair to assume that Kings Of Leon fans are likely to gawp at it with the stunned incomprehension of a recently punched horse. And that’s a shame, because there’s a bug-eyed, thrashy lunacy to the likes of the punk-reggae ‘Lazer Theme’, the shitfacedly loopy baile funk of ‘Pon De Floor’ and the pulverising ringtone-electro opener ‘Hold The Line’ that suits the moshpit as well as any other kind of mash-up.
Sadly, the goofball big-band-jazz-with-breakbeats ‘Mary Jane’ is about as
good as its description sounds, and ‘Keep It Goin’ Louder’ is about as satisfying and queasily sleazy as being seduced by one of your own uncles. But it’s held together by a pleasant rawness and lack of concern with matters commercial – Santigold’s the only big-name mate on display.
If you have to buy one painfully esoteric, scrotum-tighteningly hip, show-off album this year, you may want to make it this one.

Pete Cashmore

What do you think of the album? Let us know by leaving a comment below...

Click here to get your copy of Major Lazer's 'Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do' from the Rough Trade shop

NEW! For the latest music videos and backstage interviews, check out our brand new sister site, NME Video.

• Previous Album Review : Album review: Discovery - 'LP'
• Next Album Review : Album review: Hermas Zopoula - 'Espoir'

Date/Time	Venue	Town/City	Seetickets	Viagogo
Apr 18, 2012 19:30	The Ritz	Manchester	Tickets not currently available.	Buy Major Lazer Tickets from £68
Apr 18, 2012 19:30	Hmv Ritz	Manchester	Buy Major Lazer Tickets from £15	Buy Major Lazer Tickets
Apr 19, 2012 19:00	O2 Shepherds Bush Empire	Rlondon	Tickets not currently available.	Buy Major Lazer Tickets from £62
Apr 19, 2012 19:30	O2 Shepherds Bush Empire	Rlondon	Buy Major Lazer Tickets from £17	Buy Major Lazer Tickets
Apr 20, 2012 19:00	Hmv Institute Birmingham	Birmingham	Tickets not currently available.	Buy Major Lazer Tickets from £68
Apr 20, 2012 19:00	Hmv Institute	Birmingham	Buy Major Lazer Tickets from £15	Buy Major Lazer Tickets
Apr 21, 2012 22:00	Motion	Bristol	Buy Major Lazer Tickets	Buy Major Lazer Tickets
Apr 22, 2012 19:30	Abc	Glasgow	Tickets not currently available.	Buy Major Lazer Tickets
Apr 22, 2012 19:30	O2 Abc Glasgow	Glasgow	Buy Major Lazer Tickets from £13	Buy Major Lazer Tickets from £68