ALBUM REVIEW – as written for the Jackson Hole Weekly.
Artist: Two Door Cinema Club
Album: BEACON
Release date: August 3, 2012
Beacon, the much-anticipated sophmore album of indie sensation Two Door Cinema Club, has arrived. The Northern Ireland trio’s release rides high on the press wave of frontman vocalist Alex Trimble’s shimmering, boy choir-backed performance at London’s recent Olympics Opening Ceremony; a move that slipped TDCC onto the radar of fledgling middle class hipsters around the world.
Beacon is the epitome of a good sophmore showing. It’s deeper and more emotional than the band’s 2010 debut album, Tourist History, and gauzed with reflections of life on the road to skyrocketed fame. TDCC maintains their anxious, awkward electro pop themes, and in some ways, Beacon so seamlessly stretches from the ends of Tourist History that it seems like Book II of a planned series. TDCC has played their arena well, pulling the game with a calculated, signature style. Substantive, introspective lyrics, expanding guitar riffs, and new electronic elements make this album one of controlled growth. But sentimentality for creativity is a bit of a bathos trade, and before TDCC catches permanent slot on my playlist, they’ll have to show me if they can’t just push the lines, push just a little more.
