Review: Tokyo Police Club – Champ
It’s fun to watch a band grow up. Tokyo Police Club got a lot of attention with their debut EP, A Lesson in Crime, back in 2006. For only being a little over 16 minutes long, it packed a whole lot of punch. This was a band that was obviously going places. Now that they’ve released their second full-length album and are on their third label, Tokyo Police Club perhaps aren’t attracting the same level of critical fervor as four years ago, but their music is every bit as fun and energetic as it was back then.
To some, Tokyo Police Club’s first album, Elephant Shell, may have been somewhat of a letdown. It was, for the most part, considerably more sedate than A Lesson in Crime and the songs weren’t as immediately gratifying. Those who stuck around to give the album a chance, though, found music that was considerably more thoughtful and mature than the band’s earliest work. There may not have been any standout tracks on the level of “Citizens of Tomorrow,” but taken as a whole the album had a lot to offer.
If any criticism could be leveled at Elephant Shell, it was that it sounded a little homogenous. Champ avoids that pitfall. Here, Tokyo Police Club take a few more stylistic chances with their songs. “Favourite Colour” has a staccato guitar hook that calls to mind Taking Back Sunday’s “New Again,” one of the few decent songs off that band’s most recent album of the same name. “Bambi” sounds like the kind of song Minus the Bear should be making these days rather than the dreadful pseudo-funk of Omni. On Elephant Shell, the most obvious reference point for a song was any other song on the album. On Champ, there is enough variation between tracks to draw more outside comparisons.
Vocally, frontman Dave Monks still sounds very much like Dave Monks. His range has grown a bit, but he still has the same sleepy, affable quality to his voice as before. His lyrics remain wistful and sometimes nostalgic but are more concerned than ever with the repercussions of growing up. Tokyo Police Club were still practically kids when they made their breakthrough into music; now they’re adults who are still figuring out the process of adulthood.
Champ is a fun album that regains some of the sense of excitement of A Lesson in Crime while retaining the maturity of Elephant Shell. It’s nice to see Tokyo Police Club taking some more stylistic risks without losing the qualities that have made them stand out from the indie rock crowd. Hopefully as they grow into adulthood and become more comfortable with themselves and their music, they will continue to make albums as solid as this one.
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Jeremy Clymer lives in Michigan with his wife and kid. He shoots his writings out into the ethers of the Internet in the hopes that someone will pick up on his transmissions and shower him with money and/or praise.Email this Author | All posts by Jeremy Clymer
