Elephant Shell

It’s clear to me that the two most seminal records of the decade are Arcade Fire’s Funeral and The Strokes’ Is This It. There may be better records — Stars’ SYOF, Radiohead’s In Rainbows, to name two — but none have been more influential: Funeral for its propulsive yet cerebral tone (not to mention all the shouting and handclapping) and Is This It for its reinvention of post-punk (or is it pre-punk?) garage rock.
     Falling somewhere in the middle, both musically and geographically, are Newmarket’s own Tokyo Police Club. On the heels of two critically lauded EPs, A Lesson in Crime and the Smith EP (containing my 10th favourite song of 2007, “Box”), TPC finally release their full-length debut, Elephant Shell. And just as Los Campesinos! before them, they may have fired off their best shots with their pre-releases.
     That’s not to say Elephant Shell isn’t any good: “In a Cave” and “Juno,” with its bouncy bass riff and shrewd piano work, pick up where those terrific EPs left off. And the mid-album slowdown, “The Harrowing Adventures of...,” is a welcome change of pace for the often overexcited band. But there’s enough filler here to leave me mildly disappointed. Really, is this it? I was hoping for more. B+
Tokyo Police Club: The Harrowing Adventures of... (mp3)
Tokyo Police Club: Juno (mp3)