Tokyo Police Club always reminds me of summer.

There’s something about the poppy lyrics, intermixed with the personal stories, that comes across as warm and intimate. Listening to them is like listening to a close friend tell a story — there’s both a sensation of familiarity but also one of newness.

The band’s last album, “Forcefield,” came out in 2014 and was met with generally favorable reviews. Most of their sound is solid, sure of itself and their latest EP, “Melon Collie and the Infinite Radness (Part 1)” is the same in that sense but with a pop element to it.

Both cool-titled and cool sounding, the EP kicks off with the song “Not My Girl,” which describes a relationship that hasn’t stood the test of time. Apparently, time has the appearance of moving slower if the brain is being challenged. So things like falling in love, moving across the country or going to school makes time seem to slow down, which is what this song is talking about.

“Time doesn’t mean much to me / If you’re not my girl,” lead singer David Monks softly croons. If only everyone’s heartbreak sounded so good.

“PCH” is actually about beaches and has the same pop feel, only toned down a bit. It’s a sleepier song, with more implied romance.

“Some things people say / put me in a spin,” the chorus goes. The drumbeat is what really sells it.

“The Ocean” may be one of the only melancholy sounding songs on the EP. Slow building, it picks up at the chorus, and about midway through suddenly throws in a rad guitar solo with a particularly poignant lyric: “I’ll go on pretending I don’t care / But of course I do.” It’s a really clever composition.

“Losing You” sounds vintage. That’s probably why it’s my favorite song off the EP — detailing the beginning of the end of relationship, cheerfully with an echoing chorus and the same upbeat vibe as the previous songs. It should be sad — breakups are trainwrecks — but instead the subject matter just comes across as enjoyable.

Finally, “Please, Don’t Let Me Down” rounds out the whole EP with piercing guitar and sick drumming. “Maybe I should be more careful around you,” Monk muses, on the road to positive heartbreak yet again.

While the EP focuses mainly on breakups and the end of relationships it does so with relished cheer, making this EP another great addition to Tokyo Police Club’s discography and as melancholy as the title implies. And yeah, just like the title of the EP, it is infinitely rad.

Emera Riley is a sophomore magazine journalism major. Her column appears weekly in Pulp. You can email her at elril100@syr.edu or follow her on Twitter @emerariley.

Published on April 19, 2016 at 8:21 pm