“Tell me again how we’re easily forgettable, so formulaic and way too simple to be at all original- yeah so we’ve heard,” are the first notes sung on Hit the Lights debut album ‘This Is A Stick Up…Don’t Make It A Murder’. The entire first track, appropriately titled "The Call Out (You Are the Dishes)" acts as a safeguard against critics, it’s the bands way of proclaiming “okay, we know what you’re going to say about us…but it doesn’t make a difference”. One of the first things any listener will grasp about Hit the Lights is that they really love playing music and basically just rocking out. How can you not admire a band with this much honest attitude and energy?

As it is admitted in the first line, the band is fairly formulaic, following a pop-punk formula that consists chiefly of power chords. Instrumentally, they don’t have many extremely original melodies, but those they have are still catchy and manage to get a listeners heart pumping, despite that they are well worn. What really separates Hit the Lights from legions of other pop punkers swamping our headphones and radios are their vocals and lyrics. Vocalist Colin Ross has a way of stressing the notes he sings to give the words a clear, arcing feel. For example, on the third track, "Three-oh-nine", the guitars and drums slowly fade out until all that remains is Ross singing a cappella. The effect is giddying, especially when Ross starts the next track, the revenge anthem "Bodybag", in the same way, with those power chords marching in after him. It’s that kind of thing that makes ‘This Is A Stick Up’ the kind of CD you want play over and over again at obscene volumes until you’ve practically gone deaf.

As for lyrics, Hit the Lights manages to inject a fair amount of morbidity into their high spirited rock. While the concepts are basic, the words themselves are dark and enthralling. The last thing you expect is the voice in your ear to belt out cheerfully “You don’t know how much I adore this damp rag soaked in chloroform. It makes me so hard to ignore.” You can almost see that masochistic smile behind your eyelids…and somehow all you want to do is dance? The boys from Hit the Lights give their listeners the adrenaline rush that should only come from fleeing a crime scene, they are an edgy twist on a genre that’s become too predicable.

You can check out their website at www.hitthelightsmusic.com.