Saddle Creek Records, 2008

The boys of Tokyo Police Club finally gave us all what we were waiting and hoping the last two years for: a solid full length album. Granted, the Elephant Shell only comes in at just around the 28 minute mark, but that is nearly double the length of their hype-surrounded first EP, A Lesson in Crime.

What we have here with Elephant Shell is an album full of quick, catchy songs that pick up perfectly from the final notes of A Lesson in Crime. This is not to say their sound has not matured, nor that their production values didn’t go up. This is the tightest, and cleanest, the band has sounded. Here we have the quick, poppy writing replete with hand clapping and bass drum foot stomping, but with a slight loss of that earlier, punky edge.

Dave Monk has grown as a songwriter. Gone are the robots and the fears of the future that were evident on A Lesson in Crime. On Elephant Shell we find some songs of introspection and maybe some past regrets. There is a somberness to some of his vocal delivery, even a frailty at times, that works surprisingly well with the dirty jangle of his bass lines. And how can you fault someone for working the word ‘australopithecine’ into a song?

Nearly every song on this album could be a single. From the opening “Centennial” to the closing “The Baskervilles” and all the stops in between, just about every song has the ability to be that energetic, poppy single you would expect from Tokyo Police Club. They only slow things down a bit near the middle with “The Harrowing Adventures Of…” and “Nursery Academy” before jumping right back into it with the “Your English Is Good.” When the last beats of “The Baskervilles” kick out of the speakers, you are left wanting. Which is always a frustratingly nice thing.

I was wary that these songs could not live up to the memory of seeing a large portion of them played live last year, but they do… and in some instances exceed it. The album has enough variation throughout to keep your interest, but still hold enough of what you expect from a TPC song. There is not one misstep on this album. Elephant Shell lives up to, and surpasses, the hype that has surrounded this band for the last 2 years