ELEPHANT SHELL by Tokyo Police Club

Eager to break the mold of 'indie buzz band' that’s unfairly pigeonholed so many other promising groups in the past, Tokyo Police Club just released their debut full-length on Saddle Creek Records. Elephant Shell is a refreshing reminder of the band’s ambition as well as their musical aptitude. Sticking to the formula perfected on their attention-grabbing 2006 EP A Lesson in Crime, the Toronto foursome relies on a percussive sound embellished with complementary keyboards and post-punk guitar that melts into the mix (that’s a good thing; it works for them). Singer and bassist David Monks croaks and croons in a monotonic voice that seeps from an adolescent throat smoothed by either mother’s milk or Canadian whiskey with honey. And even though the band is too young to drink in America, the deliberately enunciated lyrical content is anything but immature. Songs like “Centennial,” “Your English is Good” and “Graves” brim with rapid-fire rhymes, poetic images and words big enough to destroy any Scrabble opponent. The music itself is catchy and instantly familiar. While tempered with bits of calm, mature sweetness, the songs still have moments of propulsive, juvenile energy full of sizzling cymbals and noisy exuberance. Moreover, the arrangements’ patently disparate elements actually work well together. The frenetic drumming somehow fits in with the robotic bass while the clean-toned guitar finds sanctuary in the digital soundscape. Preserving the concept that an album is more than just a collection of songs, TPC sequenced the 28-minute Elephant Shell very well. The first half of the album is so cohesive that it could be one 15-minute song and the second half segues seamlessly between tracks too. The band’s live shows stick to this formula as well; I actually saw them play last year and they were really tight. Indeed, Tokyo Police Club is starting to make waves. They’re well aware of it too, proclaiming on the ninth track that “you don’t need to change / your future’s with us.”

..THEY'LL BE AT THE HAWTHORNE THEATRE ON MAY 19. BE THERE..