It's a shame as, in a forest of bands dressed in indie camo, Two Door Cinema Club’s melodies and hooks remain day-glo standouts. Similarly, the overly compressed and oddly auto-tuned “Disappearer” seems an odd choice to close the album, sacrificing playful nuance for lumpen drums and too many layers. “Wonderful Life” is billed as a return to the energetic rush of the band’s early output but, as the song progresses, it pushes everything to the foreground while bellowing its intentions. However, whether it's the band trying to flesh out their sound, or producers putting too much meat on the bone, there are occasions when the production becomes too crowded, leaving the songs too little room to breathe. Speaking of familiar, there are fleeting reference points popping up through this collection: Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”, Aztec Camera’s pure pop phrasing, even a touch of the Chris Isaaks on midpoint breather track “High”, all appear to have ended up in the Two Door melting pot. Recent single “Lucky” speeds along at a motoric pace and a bassline to match, and provides the perfect platform for the sugar sweet synths and familiar falsetto.
These are the waters in which the melodies hook hardest. Keep On Smiling comes alive when the band are in their indie dance element, when they’re playing fast and cross, chipper and chippy. It’s the former that suits the band’s strengths best. Or possibly Stateside stadia, given the band’s touring schedule for the next few months. What follows falls, broadly speaking, into quirky, angular indie-synth singalongs, and dense, layered radio-friendly pop built for stadia and Stateside. It’s also a bit of a dropped shoulder, a misdirect – albeit an interesting one. Clocking in at nearly three minutes, it’s a brave choice to introduce the album. The first brings to mind heyday John Carpenter (or Stranger Things depending on your age).
Confounding expectations from the start, the new album is neatly (nearly) bookended by two instrumentals, the brooding “Messenger AD” and its penultimate partner piece “Messenger HD”.
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