tokyo police club - elephant shell
i don’t think anyone would be too surprised to hear that ireallylovemusic hq in 2008 has not exactly been rattling with the sounds of indie guitar rock-n-roll.
on the whole, my ears have tired of the genre.
so why is it that this proper debut, elephant shell, by torontos finest, tokyo police club, has become a firm favourite in recent weeks ?
perhaps it’s all down to the fact, that like their excellent frenetic mini-lp, a lesson in crime, these songs get straight to the point, and don’t hang around giving the listener any chance of boredom setting in.
11 songs - 29 minutes.
or, it could be that they have taken the sonic blueprint laid down by their obvious role models, the strokes, and decided to up the stakes when it comes to melody rich, indie post punk, and avoiding the pitfalls of trust fund press favours, heroin chic photo shoots, and badly produced vocals.
most of the songs stylistically follow a similar path with the bass guitar, for once in this treble intense world, being given a lot of presence amongst the punchy guitars.
but, when the band do take the tempo down a notch, and reveal their souls a little more (all songs are credited to the band - so no insight into who is giving themselves away), then the results are rather special. none more so than on the delicate and wonderfully honest song relating to the joys of early parenting, listen to the math, in which the opening verse gives precise advise to anyone about to bring a new person into this world of chaos.
however, such open emotional insight is rare, as the rest of the album is predominated by the need to make a rip roaring, fast-n-fun, hook heavy indie rock album, and in that respect, tokyo police club have succeeded. meaning that i for one, will be enjoying this album for many a year.
more detail : here