★★★☆☆

A brief and easy listen, Tokyo Police Club’s latest effort, “Forcefield,” combines constantly energetic instrumentation with mellow vocals to create a slightly dull and monotonous experience. It is when it departs from this formula that the band is most successful.

Tokyo Police Club, an indie rock band from Toronto, formed in 2005 and debuted its first EP, “A Lesson in Crime,” the next year. All eight songs on that record clocked in around two minutes, encouraging a tight and focused experience.

Its newest album, though not as short, demonstrates a similar trend in editing, with the majority of the songs hovering around three minutes. The record itself only features nine tracks.

The one exception is the opening track, “Argentina (Parts I, II, III),” which, as its numbered name suggests, appears to be the band’s attempt at creating a manifesto of its music. It certainly sets the tone for the rest of the album, featuring characteristics that would recur throughout the rest of the work.

“Argentina” displays energetic production and instrumentation, including a relentless drumbeat and guitar riffs to separate the three “parts” of the song (though they are pretty indistinguishable as the track flows together). However, this energetic musical base contrasts with flat, bored vocals from David Monks. He monotonously repeats the line “I don’t want to want you like I want you” five times, deadening the excitement built by the guitar in the background.

This problem persists through much of the album: Though Monks has a clear voice and intonation, he feels too controlled in contrast to the lively background. For example, while the chorus on “Hot Tonight,” the record’s dance track, is filled with zest, Monks appears so eager to get to that stage of the song that the verses sound dull. The worst transgression is in the album’s closing song, “Feel the Effect,” where the line “I feel the effect” is chanted drearily time and again.

The lyricism in “Forcefield” is simple, addressing a one-night stand in “Argentina,” a broken relationship in “Feel the Effect” and the dangers of a rich life in “Miserable.” Yet it manages to be chock-full of colorful metaphors about lighthouses and writing names on beaches. While not particularly weighty, and occasionally repetitive within songs, the lyrics fulfill their purpose and are easy to listen to.

The high point of the album comes right after the halfway point. At this stage, the instrumentation becomes slightly weary with constant drums and electronics ringing at a similar pace during every song, resulting in what appears to be a standard formula for the album. Yet here, the record shifts gears slightly.

First, with “Toy Guns,” the band appears to reflect on violence and liberation from childhood, an interesting topic all to itself. The lyrical meaning is made all the more impactful by a shift in pace in the chorus, as the song slows down, cutting out the instruments and leaving only clapping to accompany the vocals, an effective touch.

The album experiments further with “Tunnel Vision,” a track which opens with a haunting drone in the background and moves away from the peppy, fast-paced instrumentation of the first half of the album. The song’s description of the vocalist’s tunnel vision is haunting, as it drops him into alcoholism: “I might be dead tomorrow but tomorrow’s not today /… I just want to make it through one more night, tonight.”

On the whole, the record is not revolutionary. It follows established indie music traditions and begins dully. Though most of the album follows a set pattern, with the vocals drawing upon no passion and emotion, the band makes an impact when it manages to depart from this standard formula.