Switzerland (album)

Switzerland
Studio album by Electric Six
Released	September 12, 2006
Recorded	November 2005[1]
Genre	Rock
Length	42:15
Label	Metropolis Records
Producer	Peters & Peters
Electric Six chronology
Señor Smoke (2005) Switzerland (2006) I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master (2007)
Singles from Switzerland
"I Buy the Drugs" Released: 15 August 2006

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	49/100[2]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[3]
Pitchfork Media	(4.9/10)[4]
Alternative Press	[5]

Switzerland is the title of the third album by Detroit rock band Electric Six.

The album consists of thirteen new tracks. The band commented that:

“

[...] for the first time, none of the songs have the word "dance" or variation of "dance" in the title. But fear not. We have songs with "drugs" and "girls" and "tonight" and "night" and "louder" and "party" in the title, so we haven't given up on our philosophy just yet.

”

A music video for the song "I Buy the Drugs" was recorded on July 1, 2006 and was released on their MySpace site in early August. A digital download of the track followed on August 15, 2006.

The album was released on September 12, 2006 in the United States and was followed by releases in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Scandinavia.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Tyler Spencer; all music composed by Tyler Spencer except where noted.

1. "The Band in Hell" – 3:19
2. "I Buy the Drugs" – 3:22
3. "Mr. Woman" – 2:52
4. "Night Vision" – 4:03
5. "Infected Girls" (Peters/Shipps) – 3:29
6. "Pulling the Plug on the Party" – 2:54
7. "Rubber Rocket" (Tait) – 3:37
8. "Pink Flamingos" – 2:42
9. "I Wish This Song Was Louder" – 3:14
10. "Slices of You" (John Nash) – 4:17
11. "There's Something Very Wrong With Us, So Let's Go Out Tonight" – 4:23
12. "Germans in Mexico" – 3:01
13. "Chocolate Pope" – 1:02

The Australian release of the album under label Inertia Records contains a fourteenth track, a Midnight Juggernauts remix of "The Future Is in the Future" from the band's album Señor Smoke.^[6]

Music videos

Lead singer Dick Valentine stated in an interview that the band intends to record a video for every song on the album, "a lot of them...low budget".^[1] Seven official videos were released:

• "I Buy the Drugs" on YouTube
  • Dick Valentine's commentary on the video
• "Chocolate Pope" on YouTube
• "Mr. Woman" on YouTube.
• "Pulling the Plug on the Party" on YouTube
• "There's Something Very Wrong With Us So Let's Go Out Tonight" on YouTube
• "Rubber Rocket" on YouTube.
• "Infected Girls" on YouTube

In addition to the official videos released by the band, Electric Six also hosted a contest for the best fan video for the first single on the album, "I Buy the Drugs."^[7] Several winning videos were posted on the band's MySpace page but have since been removed.

Trivia

• Roughly at 1:50 mark of the track "Infected Girls" there is a speech of the girl telling the story from "Pleasing Interlude I" (a track from the band's second album, Señor Smoke) in Russian in the end in Lithuanian.
• Lead singer Dick Valentine has stated that the name Switzerland was chosen because he had never been there, and hoped that the band would be invited to tour. As of February 2009, Electric Six is scheduled to tour Switzerland in March.^[8]
• The album was dedicated to the Swiss tennis player Roger Federer.

References

1. "Dick Valentine, Musician, Electric Six", Gothamist, June 9, 2006.
2. http://www.metacritic.com/music/switzerland/electric-six
3. Allmusic review
4. Pitchfork Media review
5. Alternative Press review
6. "Switzerland" at Inertia Records.
7. "Electric Six to hold groundbreaking fan video contest for 'I Buy The Drugs!'", official Electric Six website, August 18, 2006.
8. See "Frequently Asked Questions 2009" http://www.electricsix.com/

External links

• Metropolis Mail Order: album review and track listing