Consumer Guide Album

Tokyo Police Club: Champ [Mom + Pop, 2010]
Little by little these Toronto postpunks are growing up. Not that they're trying to act mature--in fact, if you're old enough to consider mature a category they'd just as soon you listen to the Arcade Fire or somebody old like that. They're playing for their contemporaries, who apparently have not a care in the world except those that proceed naturally from play. This adds up to plenty of cares--romantic complexity, sibling rivalry, coming home wasted in the middle of the night, etc. So lest anyone get bummed, they've gotten more generous with their tunes. Slowed down and keyboarded up, these tunes make what cares they do bear seem lyrical--carefree. A-