In the summer of 2006 Canadian Indie Rock Group Tokyo Police Club released an EP titled
A Lesson in Crime, and scored legions of fans and critical acclaim. On the EP the band blitzed through seven songs in under 20 minutes, giving just enough of a taste of their wry humor and catchy tunes to leave the listener wanting more.
In the time since their first release the bands signature sound has left a distinctive impression. With songs filled with hand-claps about the world’s take over by robots like “Citizens of Tomorrow,” and songs with group-shout-alongs and distorted vocals over squealing guitars like “Cheer It On” and “Nature of the Experiment” the band began to carve a niche of its own.
Two years later the group finally issues their full-length debut, Elephant Shell, to say that the expectations are high would be an understatement. Speculation on what their full-length record would sound like has been formulating in the minds of fans and critics alike for some time now.
On Elephant Shell most of band’s formula remains the same. As expected with a higher recording budget their sound is cleaned up quite a bit, perhaps too much. Vocalist Dave Monks voice had only a passing resemblance to Colin Meloy of the Decemberists when it was shredded though a distortion box. But now on songs like “Tesselate” and “The Harrowing Adventures Of...” it is nearly indistinguishable.
On “Sixties Remake” the band sounds like another band attempting to do a song in the style of Tokyo Police Club. All the elements are there, but it just comes off a ill-conceived and generic. The same can be said for lead single “In a Cave” which is a decent song, but just manages to float by without making much of an impression.
That is not to say it is all bad though. “Your English Is Good” has the same kind of energy that could be found on their EP, and kicks off a trifecta of great songs at the end of the record.
“Listen to the Math” shows that the band is capable of slowing down the tempo and still keep thing interesting. One of the band’s appeal is the terrific drumming by Greg Alsop and this track shows off his talents very well with a complex tom and cymbal pattern during the verses.
Album closer “The Baskervilles” is arguably the group’s strongest song to date. Starting off with the line “A toast to last of the dying breed” over a soft synth riff before giving way to the drums and guitars. The song puts all the elements that made the band so appealing in the first place. For the first time on the record you get the feeling that Monks is putting all his energy into a song, instead of just throwing the lines away like he did on much of the record.
And like that it is over. Perhaps it was the fact that the songs were likely over analyzed in the studio, or maybe the group has already run out of ideas? But it is not the record that many were hoping for. It contains a few gems that will at the very least keep you interested until the next record comes out.
