Customer Reviews

Elephant Shell

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Elephant Shell finds Tokyo Police Club balancing their 'pulsate with purpose' driving sound with a smoother sense of transition, greater range, and more consistent focus. They still rock, and still change things up to keep things interesting, but those differences flow better. Some may like that, some not. :)

Like others have mentioned, I think Elephant Shell stands up a bit better to repeat listening.

I absolutely love Tokyo Police Club's 7 song EP "A Lesson in Crime." It was 20 some odd minutes of upbeat, lyrically clever, singalong fun.

The album "Elephant Shell" is good, but doesn't reach the compact, joyous heights of the EP. And yet, it still deserves four stars -- just bear with me.

I'm at my tenth listen and have identified why the album didn't hit me as hard on the first few listens. Mainly, the vocals are not processed on this recording. The lead singer is good, but one of the things that added to the edge and energy of the EP was the distortion on his voice. (Some songs used it just on the chorus, others had it all the way through.) Here, his voice is clean throughout, which lessens the intensity of some of the songs. It wouldn't be very noticeable, except that there also aren't as many moments of backing vocals here either (the EP had shouts of glee sprinkled throughout, along with great use of clapping).

I also think Tessellate would make a better opener, with Sixties Remake a sensible #2. From there, the tracks could follow in order. (And if that's not an extremely obnoxious thing for a review to suggest, then I don't know what is.)

Tessellate, Sixties Remake, Centennial, Juno, and In a Cave are highlights, along with the previously released Your English is Good (from a 2 song EP -- it sounds more like the original EP then anything else on the new album).

I realize this review seems to pit 2 albums against one another, and that it seems really negative, but I'm actually quite excited by what band has done so early in what I hope will be a long career. Give them a shot!

I really like the music presented on Elephant Shell. The guitar playing is superb, the vocals are quite catchy and fun, and there's just an energetic and pleasant overall feeling to the mood and style these guys are going for. I recommend Tokyo Police Club to anyone who's interested in music that's instantly memorable.

This album was my first introduction to Tokyo Police Club, and it was a good exposure.

The only complaint that I really have about this album is that it's too short.

I understand that the quick, catchy, poppy structure of songs is part of their style and that's what they're aiming for. However, I really wish that some of these songs were extended in length, for real...especially "Centennial" and "Nursery, Academy."

They have a very honest, serious, authentic, rich sound that the lyrics make more believable. At no point are the lyrics in a disagreement with the music.

In my own interpretation- TPC sounds lightly raw without being forced or overproduced. The guitar work is noteworthy; Very full and powerful at times with a driving anthemic feel, yet not polished clean or smoothed-out by production. The lead singer's voice is similar in a way; At times alittle gravely, but never forced or intentionally made to sound "hard."

That's why I use the word "authentic" with this album. It's clean and orderly without any kind of overproduction needed.

Favorites here are "Nursery, Academy," "Your English is good," "In a Cave," and "Tessellate." I really dig "Centennial" as well, it's just really short (1:50).

Maybe my favorite track is Graves, maybe Tesselate. Either way, great guitar sounds & love the vocals. This reminds me of a Dead Milkmen from the 90's but an indie version.

taking the new sound of new york and giving it a canadian twist, very promising debut record , can't wait to hear more.

I'm not sure if amazon made a mistake, but my copy came with a bonus disk with five remix tracks. Very pleasant surprise!!

Of course I have to mention Death Cab for Cutie. If you ever get tired of Gibbard's vocals (and it happens), TPC is very similar instrumentally. I just really loved this LP and it reminds me of Transatlanticism which is good thing. There's a lot of hand-clapping and feet-stomping and an urgency to the songs, it kinda makes you wanna dance.

Saddle Creek strikes again.

I don't know how anyone could think this album is boring, maybe it doesn't fully hit you the first time (it didn't for me) but after giving it a couple listens it sounds better every time. With this album TPC went from top twenty, to top five on my favorite bands list. I loved lesson in crime and this has the same feel just different production. I have a good feeling TPC will be one of those bands that have long intermissions between albums but will never be anything less than epic. This is an awesome cd by an awesome band if you don't at least give them a chance then you make me sad.

Okay... so I got this CD and playing it right away in my computer, It was really good I love in a cave and your english is good which is why I got the CD and tessellate, the baskervilles and juno are awesome. And since I have to keep listening to CDs nonstop so I can learn to love the whole thing I put it in my car CD and listen to the disc, it played the same tracks on the album cover. THEN!!! all of a sudden it jumped to the random mp3s and I freaked out because the hidden tracks don't sound anything like tokyo police club and I was distracted by the radio I accidentally ran a red light... grrr to the stupid ticket!! BUT holy smokes... where did these mp3s come from? Did anyone else notice this... if you open the CD there are 22 folders of random artists... how can i get my car CD player to ignore the mp3s so I can actually listen to Elephant Shell.. ugggg