This week's feature: Tokyo Police Club

Tokyo Police Club, Elephant Shell (Saddle Creek)

WHO

The indie rock pride of Newmarket, Ontario.

DISCOGRAPHY
A Lesson In Crime (Paper Bag, 2006)
Smith EP (Paper Bag, 2007)
Elephant Shell (Saddle Creek, 2008)

IN A NUTSHELL

Elephant Shell finds Tokyo Police Club taking steps towards building a career.

THE STORY

I have to confess something: I've listened to Elephant Shell about a dozen times, and I'm still not sure what I think of it.

On the one hand, it's a pretty big departure from Tokyo Police Club's debut, A Lesson In Crime. Most of the things that made that EP my favourite album of 2006 have been either turned way down in the mix or abandoned completely. Whereas every song on A Lesson... could basically be described up as two minutes of clapping and shouting over top of an impossibly catchy riff, most of the songs here operate on a much less frenetic level. I mean, "Your English Is Good" would've fit right in on that EP (probably because it's one of the oldest songs on here), and both "Sixties Remake" and "Tessellate" have elements (shoutalong vocals and handclaps, respectively) of their earlier sound, but once you get past those, Elephant Shell is a very different creature than its predecessor.

Which is where the "on the other hand" part comes in. It'd be easy to criticize Tokyo Police Club for sounding like a completely different band on Elephant Shell, but at the same time, they pretty much are a completely different band now than they were when they wrote and recorded A Lesson In Crime. Gone are the days of playing cramped shows at converted restaurants; they're now headlining tours of North America, playing at Coachella and Glastonbury and trying to show that they belong on Saddle Creek. In circumstances like that, a song like "Citizens of Tomorrow" -- which rely on audience participation in small, enclosed spaces -- just won't cut it. You need songs that are bigger (in this case, "Listen To The Math", which, by TPC standards, is practically a ballad) and ever-so-slightly more accessible (see "Juno" or "Centennial", where the band sounds sort of like Death Cab For Cutie crossed with The Strokes). In other words, Tokyo Police Club needed to make a record that they could build a career around, rather than one that was a blast of energy sustained for less than seventeen minutes.

Obviously, some people are going to be disappointed by that decision. But judging by the songs on Elephant Shell, Tokyo Police Club clearly think that a whole lot more are going to fall in love with them.

Want to win Elephant Shell? Thanks to Saddle Creek, i(heart)music has a copy to give away. To enter to win, just e-mail me your name and address, and I'll pick a winner randomly!