Back in 2008, Tokyo Police Club took the sentence "Less is more" and made an anthem out of it. Their debut album, Elephant Shell, was like a short summer storm, starting abruptly, thus bringing you right in the middle of the action, and then ending after less than a half an hour, leaving you both dazed and confused, but completely refreshed, while making you crave for more. After more than two years, it seems that Monks & co. decided that it's time for "more" to come, and announced the release of their new album, Champ (the official date is 8 June 2010).
The first thing that hits you while listening to it is the length of songs. On this one, the band decided to slow down the train and showing us that, yeah, they can actually do some really cool stuff with guitars. However, this does not mean a complete switch in sound. The voice is same as ever (which means annoyingly good). Besides, the boys are clever enough to realise that passing from coldness to heat (or vice versa, it doesn't matter) might bring serious damage, which is why you can feel at certain points reminiscences from Elephant Shell.
For example, the first track, Favourite Food, begins in a very silent, peaceful way (due especially to the guitar line), and towards the middle, turns into energetic, waking you up and making you think "Aha, so they are still here... I thought I lost them". And even if you realize afterward that the old sound actually pops up rarely, you cannot help but to feel fascinated by tracks like Hands Reversed, Favourite Colour, Breakneck Speed or Bambi. At the end of the day, you suddenly realise that you actually didn't lose anything at all. It's just rain instead of storm. It's different, of course, but basically the same cool thing you knew and loved.
On the first album, Tokyo Police Club showed us the taste of a musical sprint. On their second release, they show us the taste of victory. And, damn, what a victory it is.
*photo courtesy of Tokyo Police Club's MySpace
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