By Ryan Broderick
Tokyo Police Club have been at the center of a lot of buzz in the last few years, and with the release of “Elephant Shell” it’s easier to expect a lot more about them in the coming months.
If you haven’t heard of them, it’s not your fault, before their almost continuous play rotation on MTV2 and mtvU they were one of the many blog-promoted name-drop bands. In the case of Tokyo Police Club though, the hipster hype is well deserved.
Their earlier releases brandish a cool and atmospheric take on the post-punk sound that’s becoming more and more chic these days. “Elephant Shell” is more of the same in the way that every song thumps and bumps along with distorted bass and floating synth, but they’ve opted for a much dancy type of tune this time around.
What sets this foursome apart from the rest of the pouting, skinny jeans sporting dance punk movement that’s dominating the college music circuit is a maturity and depth that’s usually lost in the pretension of their peers. The easiest way to describe the quartet’s sound is The Decemberists doing sped up Death Cab For Cutie covers and like that implies there’s just as much fun in there as there is substance.
Singer and bassist Dave Monks has taken his introverted stage presence and turned it into a sassy and introspective croon that Killers frontman Brendan Flowers would be envious of. But instead of being a faux-British cowboy, Monks actually sounds like a real person. The best part of it all though, is they don’t just rip off post-punk prototypes like Joy Division and use it as an identity. When you hear a Tokyo Police Club song, you can actually recognize it as their own.
The only real blemish on “Elephant Shell” is the in the record as a whole. The band has only released EPs before this and it’s definitely noticeable in the latter part of the album that they’re running out of material. While the space of 11 tracks gives them room to breathe, it also takes away from their overall direction a bit and repetition creeps up towards the last quarter.
Still, the end result is an album hipsters, fans and newcomers alike can all find something. It’s a rare feat that few bands seem to figure out how to pull off, and that’s a well produced and expansive album that doesn’t lose the grit and bare-bones attitude of the band. But at the same time, it doesn’t just fall into the endless ether of indie-pop.
If “Elephant Shell” is a commercial success it won’t be because of a sacrifice in sound, but instead simply because of its merit, and that’s something that you don’t see too often these days.
Indie band Tokyo Police Club looks to break from the typical with newest CD ‘Elephant Shell.’ (bmi.com)
(amazon.com)