Western Daily Press

24 April 1985

ROCK FILE

A big Switch offensively

No one can deny they’ve got style.

A ragamuffin look with a hint of pre-pubescent sex and something of both Boy George and Howard Jones, Strawberry Switchblade have manufactured the perfect pop star image.

Not that there is anything wrong with dressing up for effect. This Glaswegian duo have proved that it’s the image as much as the music that wins the pop show appearances and the media attention.

The only trouble is the music. Taken in small doses, like the singles, Switchblade produce nice pop records that make it to the middle reaches of the charts and offend no one.

But there’s something cloyingly sweet and synthetic about the girly croonings of Rose McDowell [sic] and Jill Bryson.

The largely unchanging electronic backing of keyboards and pop percussion on their album, entitled simply Strawberry Switchblade, further adds to the sugary confection of the sound.

And when you combine that image of polka dot ribbons and bows to the songs and listen to a whole album of the stuff then it becomes all too much.

Some of the tracks may be good pop music. Some like Being Cold and Another Day rise above the pure pop and create a wistful atmospheric sound.

But in the end it’s hard to think of them as anything but one night wonders, if that even, who have made it more on the tattered coat-tails of their image than for any talent in their song-writing.

– Justin Davenport

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