This EP barely registers with me. It’s as if my aural pleasure receptors have been coated with teflon and the charms, or lack thereof, of Toronto’s indie-rockin’ Tokyo Police Club slide right off into the surrounding cloud of white noise. Big bouncing bass lines, wiry eighth note guitar, and the occasional screaming through a bullhorn vocals- I neither like it nor despise it. I push play and it’s just kind of there.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit extreme. There are some details that I appreciate, like the ringing lead guitar on “Nature of the Experiment” and the handclaps and main riff on the strongest track, “Citizens of Tomorrow.” (Those handclaps had my brain working overtime tying to come up with the song that I’d heard that same effect on before- Guvner’s “Wounded Birds and Vampires Own the Edge” on their fine album, Spectral Worship.) And I swear that’s Colin Meloy singing the first verse of the otherwise Strokes-y “Cheer It On.” Still, the predominant feeling A Lesson In Crime inspires is shoulder shrugging ambivalence.

Mixtape track- Citizens of Tomorrow
Freebies- No downloads, but you can stream the entire EP at the Tokyo Police Club site.