Tokyo Police Club
Elephant Shell
Release Date: Apr 22, 2008
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Record label: Saddle Creek
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Album Review: Elephant Shell by Tokyo Police Club
Acceptable, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 7/10
If the Lesson in Crime EP introduced Tokyo Police Club as Canadian disciples of the Strokes, then Elephant Shell finds them shedding their vintage leather jackets in favor of several different getups. Tracks like "Tessellate" and "Listen to the Math" dress themselves up with the same sort of witty, professorial wordplay of a Decemberists album, and frontman David Monks casually tosses off a word like "australopithecine" with the ease of an anthropologist. Elsewhere, the group's steady drumming and angular, post-punk guitars point listeners toward the dancefloor, even if some of Monks' lyrics are better suited for a funeral dirge than an energetic, indie rock anthem.
Based on rating 2/5
It’s incredibly impressive how far Tokyo Police Club took their A Lesson In Crime EP, a 16-minute blast that fuelled endless tours, Letterman spots and mainstream radio love. And probably one of the most tantalizing aspects of that jolting mini-record was the teasing possibility of what else the band was capable of. After a nearly two-year wait, disappointingly the answer is not much more.
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