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Since Sean Paul faded out of vogue it's fair to say that, compared with a career of over 30 years of almost constant presence, Jamaican Dancehall has lain dormant in mainstream music. It's hard to pin down what has caused this period of unprecedented disinterest- the allegations of homophobia and a lack of innovation might have played a part, but my personal view is that our romance with Jamaica and her music is built on a positivity and sunshine which post-Sean Paul ragga artists such as Vybz Cartel just weren't espousing.

If this is true, perhaps a grizzled ex-commando with a laser for an arm and a chest full of zombie-war decorations seems an unlikely candidate to nice up the dance, but when you discover that Major Lazer is just a rastafarian pantomime horse played by serially innovative producers Diplo & Switch it's easy to see why many are waiting for him to do just that. Both of his component parts have independently glittering reputations for being a million miles ahead of trends: Diplo first became a household name in the UK with his exquisite coffee table Downtempo on the Ninja Tunes label, but both he and Switch have since cemented their reputations by smuggling the drumbeats of tropical slums into western charts and dancefloors; if this is making you think of Arular, Kala or Santogold it's because they co-produced all of them. Switch is also often credited with the creation of Fidget House but, in light of everything else, perhaps he can be forgiven.

With the collaboration of two such irreproachable talents for re-invention, Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do shouldn't have been anything less than brilliant, but the task of doing something novel with a tired and over-exploited genre is still a very difficult challenge. Dancehall is such a familiar animal, it's hard to stop your concentration slipping over the same old ragga vocals and slow skanking drum patterns. There is oodles of skillfully handled experimentation here, but it can feel like it's struggling to make itself heard, and it doesn't take much of a lapse in attention to miss it entirely. Hold The Line is a good beginning, because it immediately demonstrates Major Lazer's ability to inject new life with the simplest of touches. The monotone rhythm of a surf guitar riff coil the steady composition with a clenched energy it is easy to imagine electrifying a sweating bashment crowd. By contrast When You Hear The Bassline is disappointing, it doesn't really do anything wrong but the re-pitched ragga gyal vocals can't hold the tune on their own. Can't Stop Now is slightly more melodic yet utterly banal dub reggae, and at Lazer Theme the return to gun slinging guitar samples sounds a bit unimaginative. You have to wait until Cash Flow for a track you might actively choose to play- it's more reggae but charmingly well handled. The next stand-out dancehall track is Keep It Going Louder, playing like Sean Paul for the Akon generation, swiftly followed by the fantastic gully-side subversion of military drumming in Pon de Floor. For something truly groundbreaking Baby will take some beating: they've autotuned a baby's wail into a haunting muezzin and looped it into something vaguely arabic and surpisingly beautiful. And there it peaks, Crookers collaboration closer Jump Up is not really worth describing. As an album Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do suffers the same pros and cons as a trip to the Wirral, there are undoubtedly moments of interest, but mostly it's unremarkable and certainly doesn't immediately merit a repeat.

It is unfortunate that either respect or nostalgia have prevented Diplo & Switch from really pushing the boat out on this project, large tracts are still just unattractive buck toothed dancehall. It is possible to discern at points the brand of raw-edged third world technoism that have driven both producers to fantastic places with their previous efforts, and to see how it could re-ignite this venerable genre, but in my view they haven't quite managed to pull it off here.

Tom Burton