Review -- Tokyo Police Club

Tokyo Police Club
Champ
Mom + Pop Music Co.

Welcome, everyone, to the very first review on The Casualty Report! You can expect most reviews to look pretty much like this one. Actually you can expect whatever you want, since it won't make any difference in what I write. Enjoy!

The second album from young Canadian rockers Tokyo Police Club, Champ, plays up several of the band's strengths to create a consistently quality record. First, the group draws on the punk side of it's pop-punk style in ensuring the album is seamless and filler-free - every track is roughly around three minutes long and moves quickly enough not to overstay its welcome. Second, Tokyo Police Club takes advantage of their youthful nature (bassist and lead singer Dave Monks is 23) to reflect on their quickly fading childhood and the transition to adulthood. On "End of a Spark," Monks asserts "Wasting is an art / Like the nights we spent in backs of cars" and this nostalgic sentiment is echoed throughout many of the albums 11 tracks. However, unlike many bands with similar focuses (foci?), Tokyo Police Club's reflection on their younger selves is not always sugar-coated, and their more nuanced take is refreshing for someone like myself who remembers high school as a hellish experience. Monks reflects on the other side of childhood in the deceptively-titled "Breakneck Speed," singing "I'm still amazed that you made it out alive...But the big bad years are gone."

The only real problem with Champ is that none of the tracks are real standouts, with the possible exception of the slow-building gripping album opener, "Favourite Food." While the album as a whole certainly benefits from the consistency in track length and theme, it hampers the effectiveness of the individual tracks, as they album just seems to flow from start to finish without anything particularly captivating or unique jumping out. Still, as problems go, it's not a terrible one to have, and Tokyo Police Club have delivered a solid effort that shows a great deal of promise for the young band.

Grade: B

If you only have time/money/attention span for one track: "Favourite Food"