When ‘A Lesson In Crime’ was released hype and buzz surrounded this Canadian outfit and rightly so considering the brilliance of the EP come album. That was over two years ago and since then the band put out ‘Smith EP’ which featured one of my favourite songs of last year, ‘Box’. They also released the single ‘Your English Is Good’ along the way to which thankfully has made it to the album.
All these releases in the space of a couple of years show that this band is certainly not afraid to get material out there quickly. However some times quantity does not beat quality, The Pigeon Detectives comes to mind straight away.
Many fans of the band were upset with the track listing of the new album because it only had ‘Your English Is Good’ on it and none from the first release ‘A Lesson In Crime’. To me this was refreshing from a band; it could have been so easy to fill the album with songs they’d re-recorded from that first EP, thankfully they did not.
First single from ‘Elephant Shell’ is ‘Tessellate’ which is certainly a strong first single providing us with some great vocals from Dave Monks. Singer and bass player Dave Monks certainly does have an unusual voice and this is strong on ‘Tessellate’ which is brimming with sharp guitar chords and sweet piano sounds.
‘Centennial’ starts the album off and does not disappoint and has all the Tokyo Police Club trademarks we come to expect from listening to ‘A Lesson In Crime’. ‘In A Cave’ follows the first track on and remains my favourite song from the album. For some reason when I first received the album this was the opening track so it was the first song I heard and it still remains the song I always go back to first when I put the record on.
The impressive single from last summer ‘Your English Is Good’ is on the album and is still as powerful as before. “Oh, give us your vote, give us your vote. If you know what’s good for you.” Not sure what we’re voting for but if their manifesto is as good as this song I’ll certainly be voting.
This album includes many, many more highlights including ‘Listen to the Math’ which is a little slower than we come to expect with Tokyo Police Club. ‘Juno’ which shares the same name as recent film about teenage pregnancy, although I don’t think it’s about the same topic. All the same ‘Juno’ provides yet another reason why this is a really good album. ‘Graves’ is a song any good respectful indie band would be proud of, and you can hear some Strokes riffs in there to boot, which is never a band thing.
It was always going to be hard to follow up the impressive first release ‘A Lesson In Crime’ but I am sitting on the fence to whether or not it beats it. My only complaint with this album is that at 27 minutes and 58 seconds it is a little short however if you’ve got a spare 30 minutes and you want some easy listening indie then look no further than this album.
7.4/10
All these releases in the space of a couple of years show that this band is certainly not afraid to get material out there quickly. However some times quantity does not beat quality, The Pigeon Detectives comes to mind straight away.
Many fans of the band were upset with the track listing of the new album because it only had ‘Your English Is Good’ on it and none from the first release ‘A Lesson In Crime’. To me this was refreshing from a band; it could have been so easy to fill the album with songs they’d re-recorded from that first EP, thankfully they did not.
First single from ‘Elephant Shell’ is ‘Tessellate’ which is certainly a strong first single providing us with some great vocals from Dave Monks. Singer and bass player Dave Monks certainly does have an unusual voice and this is strong on ‘Tessellate’ which is brimming with sharp guitar chords and sweet piano sounds.
‘Centennial’ starts the album off and does not disappoint and has all the Tokyo Police Club trademarks we come to expect from listening to ‘A Lesson In Crime’. ‘In A Cave’ follows the first track on and remains my favourite song from the album. For some reason when I first received the album this was the opening track so it was the first song I heard and it still remains the song I always go back to first when I put the record on.
The impressive single from last summer ‘Your English Is Good’ is on the album and is still as powerful as before. “Oh, give us your vote, give us your vote. If you know what’s good for you.” Not sure what we’re voting for but if their manifesto is as good as this song I’ll certainly be voting.
This album includes many, many more highlights including ‘Listen to the Math’ which is a little slower than we come to expect with Tokyo Police Club. ‘Juno’ which shares the same name as recent film about teenage pregnancy, although I don’t think it’s about the same topic. All the same ‘Juno’ provides yet another reason why this is a really good album. ‘Graves’ is a song any good respectful indie band would be proud of, and you can hear some Strokes riffs in there to boot, which is never a band thing.
It was always going to be hard to follow up the impressive first release ‘A Lesson In Crime’ but I am sitting on the fence to whether or not it beats it. My only complaint with this album is that at 27 minutes and 58 seconds it is a little short however if you’ve got a spare 30 minutes and you want some easy listening indie then look no further than this album.
7.4/10
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