Tokyo Rose

Reinventing A Lost Art (2003)

Adam White

At some point at the turn of the century, pop punk decided to start taking itself
seriously. This is due to either the seductive sudden gold rush of the burgeoning
emo scene or the realization that you can only be a joker for so long. Whatever
the motive, where we once saw a legion of silly frat humour we're not seeing
more serious songs of love and loss. In many respects Tokyo Rose fits this mould
of a post 2000 pop punk band well.

While "Reinventing A Lost Art" doesn't quite live up to it's
title, it does include plenty of competent tunes. Particularly on songs like "Don't
Look Back" the band shows tantalizing moments of promising songwriting that
begin to set them apart from their peers. Be it little vocal inflections or change-ups
to traditional pop rock song structure, the band manages to keep their tunes interesting
(which is rather key when you're treading on such well traveled ground).

It probably says something about the number of similar acts when I'm tempted
to review Tokyo Rose based on what they thankfully don't do. While Ryan
Dominguez's vocals aren't too far from his Saves The Day inspired
contemporaries, they fall shot of the high-school whine that most other "emotional"
rock bands employ. At some of the record's best moments they're actually
quite dynamic. The backing vocals also manage to steer clear of unnecessary screaming
and complement the lead quite well. Instrumentally there are little hints of post-punk
in the guitar play. This helps the band vary their playing enough to keep things
sounding fresh and at times quite accomplished. The production here is crisp and
brings out the right elements to keep the record from falling flat.

While I'm inclined to write off bands of this genre, Tokyo Rose has charmed
their way into my good books. "Reinventing A Lost Art" isn't
anything you haven't heard, but it's executed well and sounds great.