Forcefield

The long-awaited third studio album from Newmarket, Ontario's Tokyo Police Club features the kind of attention-grabbing hooks that sound so easy and obvious that whatever “alternative” status the group once had must be surrendered for a mainstream pop pedigree. Then again, the writing for Forcefield began in mid-2011, so the process was never as easy as it sounds. But the assured production from Doug Boehm (who has worked magic for Dr. Dog and Girls) and the band’s singer/bassist David Monks is a testament to bright, shiny textures overruling all else. Even the extended eight-plus-minute opener, “Argentina (Parts I, II, III),” retains an accessibility that most bands of TPC’s caliber eventually abandon. “Hot Tonight” is the obvious single, but “Gonna Be Ready,” “Tunnel Vision," and “Through the Wire” also offer up that summer vibe that bands from Foster the People and The Hold Steady to Passion Pit and French Kicks have all been trying to write with varying degrees of success for years.