Beacon… Review not as glowing as her jacksie

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!

a quail a quail half a quail

Beacon is out now on Kitsuné. For more information please visit twodoorcinemaclub.com

Artists: two door cinema club

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.