Review: Two Door Cinema Club – Beacon
Published on September 5th, 2012 | Jonny Abrams
Polished Jacknife Lee production, indie-disco rhythms, tried and trusted chord progressions, inoffensive vocal style: much like Homer Simpson chuckling to himself while watching Barney the Dinosaur singing “two plus two is four!”, Rocksucker can see why this is so popular.
The Northern Irish three-piece’s second album could very well have been created to the NME’s own bespoke regulations, and that’s about as much as you need to know. There are some nice minor-key resolutions on opener “Next Year” but the next five or six tracks pass by with very little incident, doing good by the deeply uninspired song titles. You can’t blame a band for clinging rigidly to a proven successful formula, but actually you can and we will. In a week that sees new LPs from Animal Collective and Deerhoof amongst others, the chronic lack of imagination at play here is all the more distressing. It’s like Hard-Fi with less of our edge, a rather damning indictment you might agree.
However, things do pick up towards the end of the album: “The World is Watching” is quite nice with its lush female backing vocals and romantic overtures, even if it is only a slightly better version of all the tracks preceding it, while the verging-on-Passion-Pit-y “Settle” is more triumphant than inane, wielding some neat little time signature tricks that make amends for the song’s mind-numbing lyrics.
The delightful harmonised guitars on “Spring” are worthy of mention, and the closing title track brings about a welcome, belated shift in mood with its squiggly concrete bass and murky, cavernous atmospherics which then break into…more of the same. Oh well.
This isn’t soulless or vapid – there’s heart here, sure – but it all feels so very unnecessary. Ignore any comparisons to Postal Service; to Rocksucker’s ears it sounds more like Hard-Fi with less of an edge, a rather damning indictment you might agree. Nevertheless, the second half of the album has its moments, so try staying awake until then and see if you agree.
Rocksucker says: Two and a Half Quails out of Five!
Beacon is out now on Kitsuné. For more information please visit twodoorcinemaclub.com