Beacon-Two Door Cinema Club
The question on my mind as I waited for my copy of Beacons to load in the CD player was the same fear I’d held the whole two years since falling in love with Two Door Cinema Club’s debut Tourist History
Would the Northern Irish band succumb to second album syndrome? Well, after listening, the answer is, no, they don’t.
Instead we find a solid treasure trove of good songs.
Single Sleep Alone is a solid, catchy track with a great video. And although this one song isn’t about being on tour, quite a few songs feature at least a few references to life on the road(Two Door have pretty much been touring since 2010). Take the album opener, Next Year. In this song, Alex Trimble sings,
I’ll be home for next year darling
over a dozen times. And although the song subject is slightly cliched, I’m not complaining because Next Year is a very good song, which doesn’t really stray from what made them.
Moving on, the next track on Beacon is Handshake, a song which draws some parallels with I Can Talk from the first album. This is followed by Wake Up, a fast paced number which sees Two Door use their synth and squeaky guitar combo at its best.
Sun and Someday are both good songs, but to be honest sound awfully tried by this point.
Then comes the aforementioned single Sleep Alone, before we hear The World is Watching, in which Trimble talks about being lonely on tour. And with female vocalist Valentina, what could originally have been perceived as whining from Trimble becomes beautiful.
Next up Settle is my favourite track from this album. Not because it sounds like anything from Tourist History, but the complete opposite. Yes, Settle is a whole new ball game. And it’s a good ball game at that. Integrating what sounds like steel drums, Settle builds up from a sole xylophone to a full blown brass orchestra.
Then we move onto Spring, a nice and gentle track before we end on a high with Pyramid and title track Beacon.
Overall: In Beacon, Two Door Cinema Club have made an album which avoids all second album cliches but is still good. Although using elements from Tourist History, they also venture into unproven areas with songs such as Settle and The World Is Watching.
A solid 8/10
