Tokyo Police Club
Elephant Shell (2008)

Introducing, Elephant Shell.

The first full-length album from Tokyo Police Club, featuring the hit single “Your English is Good.” The track, which was released as a standalone single in July of 2007, proved just how good lead singer Dave Monks' English is. Listening to the track “Tessellate”, with lyrics like “dead lovers salivate,” and “broken hearts tessellate,” it is clear that there is a lot of emotion and meaning behind the lyrics, even if you do need a dictionary and a thesaurus to figure out what it is.

Literally an underground band, Tokyo Police Club formed in 2005 during a jam session in a Newmarket, Ontario basement. The quartet consists of Dave Monks (bass and vocals), Josh Hook (guitar), Graham Wright (keyboards), and Greg Alsop (drums).

Since 2005, TPC has released two EPs entitled A Lesson in Crime (2006) and Smith (2007), as well as the single “Your English is Good” available only on seven-inch vinyl. On April 22, 2008, Elephant Shell was released, and the band officially came to the surface.

The time in between the release of A Lesson in Crime and Elephant Shell was spent touring North America; one of those stops being here at Fanshawe's Forwell Hall. If you happened to catch that performance, you would have only heard tracks from their older albums, as Elephant Shell was still in the works. However that may not be such a bad thing as listening to some of the songs off of the new album probably would have made you feel like you were still in class.

The entire album is an elaborate storytelling set to rhythms and melodies that compliment each other like an adjective compliments a noun. Without the clean ringing of chimes and solid guitar licks, Monks' words would most likely fall on deaf ears.

In the past, TPC was often compared to fellow garage rockers The Strokes. But after the release of their musical and literary work of art, Tokyo Police Club have come out of their shell and proven themselves to be an entity all their own.