Two years after the release of their debut album Elephant Shell, the awkwardly adorable Canadians, Tokyo Police Club bring their (possibly eagerly) awaited sophomore LP, Champ. Two years is quite a while in between albums, especially if you want to cash in on the momentum that a successful debut album brings.
First I paid close attention to see if there would be a catchy tune like In a Cave, which was my absolute favourite track on the first album. This is purely due to my music related A.D.D, where everything has to catch my attention straight away or I usually dismiss it. Trust me, I’m working on it, although I’m still going to dismiss anyone who attempts to tell me again that Drake & Lil’ Wayne are “soooo awesome and prolific and that”.
The lead single, Wait Up (Boots Of Danger) does comes pretty close though, and was one of my favourites. With a nonsensical but sweet, child like chorus consisting of do do’s and thankfully no woah-oh’s (never thought I’d reference Kisschasy in anything I wrote), its up-tempo cheerfulness will win you over. Other highlights include; Bambi with its beautiful almost poetic lyrics andFrankenstein with the very Julian Casablancas/Strokes-esque hook and vocals.
The progression from song to song is pretty seamless; the overall vision of the album was well executed and doesn’t sound as disjointed as Elephant Shell. It reminded me of a more highly produced Born Ruffians. This matured sound doesn’t completely steer away from previous work. You can definitely tell that it’s Tokyo Police Club’s work, it just sounds a lot more unified and with more of a purpose.
This is one of those albums that took more than a couple of listens through for me to fully appreciate what it has to offer and by the end of it I ended up liking it quite a bit. So if you’re not looking for instant gratification, I implore you to check it out. It really won me over in the end and my initial thoughts were proven wrong. As per usual.
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