The Singles Jukebox

We like power pop! Oh, wait, no, we don’t. Wait, we do! No, we don’t. Yes, we, uhh, hmm…

[Video][Website]
[5.25]

Juana Giaimo: Tokyo Police Club simply don’t belong: they aren’t mainstream and the press isn’t impressed by them either. In the same way, in “Not My Girl,” the city works as a foreign place where Dave Monks wanders aimlessly — first as a “we” that soon is replaced for a lonely “I.” While the first visit to the city is filled with excitement and lots of fun — just like releasing a first album — the second visit isn’t the same. Where has everyone gone to? People forget you easily, but Dave Monks is the kind of person who will keep attached because he never seems to fully understand what’s going on — and that’s the reason why their songs always have an unfinished feeling. They could be smarter and more complex, but if the song continued, Dave Monks would go back to the city again to get lost in it again while he insists in looking for for a girl that is probably trying to avoid him. And in the same way, Tokyo Police Club will continue to release music. 
[8]

Micha Cavaseno: You know how there’s a policy in certain states to kill off animals who are overpopulating and thereby threatening the ecosystem? Someone needs to do that for indie bands who need to stop, go get real jobs, and call it a day because they were never that hot to begin with.
[2]

Patrick St. Michel: Indie rock is dead, long live indie rock. Well, at least mid-aughts indie rock championed by Blogspot outposts. It has been about a decade since Tokyo Police Club were first generating buzz with UK-first EPs you had to Soulseek out in the States (wooo freshman year!) and here we are ten years later, the band still sounding more or less the same. That’s not necessarily a bad thing — like Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, they are still capable of a skippy rock number that is deceptively catchy given the verbose verses. As most of their music was back in those glory days, “Not My Girl” doesn’t stick around long after it reaches the end of its three minutes, but it’s enjoyable while it lasts.
[6]

Cassy Gress: Dave Monks has a well-enunciated Canadian politeness to his voice that may have sunk any punk-ness that this could have had. By the end it sounds like the band is trying to ramp it up, but instead they’re chanting tautologies: “if you’re not my girl, you’re not my girl.”
[4]

Will Adams: They’ve gotten a bit fuzzier since 2014’s Forcefield; I wish that Dave Monks’ wry tone shone through more, but that’s a slight complaint to lodge at a song that exemplifies the brand of tight, highly likable power pop Tokyo Police Club have consistently delivered for years.
[7]

Alfred Soto: I had to clean my contacts: the echo, “back to basics” ethos, and distortion suggest 2001 but the release date sez 2016.
[4]

Jibril Yassin: I miss the spry Tokyo Police Club of old, although this is a fine enough replacement. There’s a joyful energy guiding this even if the track itself feels paint-by-numbers. Tokyo Police Club have done this before, and the “Back to basics!” route of songwriting doesn’t suit them — even if it does look good for a brief moment. 
[7]

Jer Fairall: Milquetoast power pop at its most stiflingly polite. Even the guitar solo sounds afraid to rattle anyone.
[4]