Two Door Cinema Club — Keep On Smiling — Album Review
Electronic | Indie | Rock
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In recent times, many bands and song artists (especially those in the indie sphere) have taken to adopting an electronic sound to appeal to listeners by the merit of a feel that in simultaneously unique and nostalgic. The Northern Irish indie band known as Two Door Cinema Club is a fine example of this; perhaps one of the finest.
While I had obviously known of many of the Two Door hits growing up, such as “What You Know” and “This Is the Life”, I was admittedly a little late to the party when it came to fully settling down and reviewing a full album of theirs.
This came in the form of their most recent record prior to this one, titled False Alarm, released in 2019. This was mainly in preparation for their live headline set at 2019’s Truck Festival, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But going back to the 2019 studio record, this kind of served as the baseline for Two Door’s newest musical wave, that being the markedly electronic one.
And in the case of False Alarm, that change certainly worked in their favour. In my mind, it helped the band stand out more from what was quite the oversaturated listing of UK indie bands that we are privileged to have.
But how would the band develop upon this sound with their brand new 2022 release? would they even hold on to that stylistic change at all? Fans were given their answer, in the form of Two Door Cinema Club’s fifth studio album, titled Keep On Smiling.
I gave myself no notion of what Keep On Smiling might sound like, despite there being two teaser tracks in the form of “Wonderful Life” and “Lucky”. However, I felt that it would be better to go into this album as a completely fresh experience, to find out for myself if Two Door had developed upon the electronic rework of their sound.
It turns out, that the band have indeed developed upon exactly that in a big way. In fact, Keep On Smiling is arguably the most electronic-sounding record the band have released so far. And by the looks of it, the band seem fully dedicated to it.
And while, atmospherically, Two Door Cinema Club really have that aspect down with their newest album, their list of tracks are more of a mixed bag. While a handful of tunes are a little too electronic for their own good (for lack of a better description), there are those that fit in brilliantly with the rest of their discography as well.
The narrative of this album is also a strange one as well, where I can’t quite decide whether the band are intending for it to be ironic or not. Either way though, the feel-good vibes are certainly there, to the point where I wish that Keep On Smiling was released ever-so-slightly earlier in the year, in which the summer heat still reigned.
Whichever way you slice it, Keep On Smiling still stands as a highly enjoyable record, and another example of how Two Door Cinema Club’s venture into the electronic was the right call.
Warning: music video contains flashing images
Favourite Tracks: Everybody’s Cool | Lucky | Wonderful Life
Least Favourite Track: Millionaire
Lower Third | [PIAS]
