Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson In Crime

Featuring enough clapping to rival a stadium on Derby Day, raw palmed Tokyo Police Club release ‘A Lesson In Crime’ EP, where songs faint into one another on a whim and defy any attempts made to keep up.

Running through every song is a steady vein of inspirational consistency. From opener Cheer It On and it’s brusque Strokes type strums to “Shoulders and Arms” and haunting final track “La Ferraise” which boast piercing bullet speed riffs directly encouraged by Editors.

Another name arises here also. Vocal wise, the lead singer calls to mind the rough edged tones of The Cribs’ Ryan Jarman and the track itself echoes the intentional roughness and makeshift rock and roll quality of the band’s second album.

‘Cut Cut Paste’ is a standout track here for both its electronica sounds and the shunning of clichés when it comes to love. Random group shouts explodes over the declaration ‘when we kiss my stars align’.

Rampant noise making is not the extent of this band’s talents, however. The comfort of introversion and melancholia is also a big theme with lyrics hinting at being lost and meandering but are then somehow content in their misery.

Moody Nature Of The Experiment has the ability to transport and subdue your mood a level with reflections like “We’re halfway up the bracket/the rain soaks through my jacket”.

On one hand ‘A Lesson In Crime’ is a pensive Indie Rock record, pleasing the current demand for electro and gently skipping from mood to mood. On the other hand it is a record wandering alone through its own Machiavellian world and couldn’t care less whether you can keep up or not.

Track Listing:

1. Cheer It On
2. Nature Of The Experiment
3. Citizens Of Tomorrow
4. Shoulders & Arms
5. If It Works
6. Cut Cut Paste (Bonus Track)
7. Be Good
8. La Ferrassie