Robot rulers. Martian and lunar colonies. Evil heart exploding microchips to keep the human slaves in line. According to Tokyo Police Club, “That’s 2009…” While robo-doomsday has yet to descend upon 2009, if it’s half as exciting as 2006′s debut EP A Lesson In Crime, one has to hope it does.
“Operator get me the President! This is an emergency!” is exasperatedly hollered as the album begins on “Cheer It On.” The trilling and electronic bleeps that follow make up Tokyo Police Club’s sound. The band make that this point comes across by making the key phrase in the song’s chorus “Tokyo Police Club.” Somehow the vitality of singer/bassist Dave Monks’s delivery of this avoids any vain or self-promoting aspect, instead seeming to fit the song’s flow.
The thing that stands out most about A Lesson In Crime is how everything stands out. The mixing is unbelievably flawless, every essential note seems to be at the forefront at all times. Even the swaying electronic siren sounds and jingling percussion on “La Ferrassie” that feel distant are anything but buried.
The album is so lively and unceasing. The aforementioned track about robotic overlords (“Citizens Of Tomorrow”) sets the album on an incredibly clap happy tangent. “If It Works” takes it one step further, seamlessly intertwining claps with snare snaps and cymbal crashes. There isn’t a moment on A Lesson In Crime when drummer Greg Alsop’s beats bore, they are constantly catchy.
Monks’s reserved vocals on the album’s best track (“Be Good”) best represents A Lesson In Crime as a whole. His almost monotonic delivery has that cool kid indifference that we all would like to pretend isn’t intoxicating but are invariably suckers for. Even when his bandmates join in with impassioned yelps, he keeps his demeanor.
‘Cause that’s what cool kids do.
Review Score: 8.5
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