Two Door Cinema Club - Keep Smiling

 

Das Plattencover weist kunterbunt in Richtung 80er Jahre, die Plattenkritiken sind eher trist und tendieren in Richtung Mittelmaß. Während der Vorgänger „False Alarm“ (2019) bei Metacritic 76/100 Punkten einheimsen konnte, steht das fünfte Album des Two Door Cinema Clubs gerade einmal bei 62/100. Tiefstwert für Alex Trimble, Sam Halliday und Kevin Baird.

Während der instrumentale Opener „Messenger AD (intro)“ zu oft die Titelmusik von „Stranger Things“ gehört hat, klingen die beiden folgenden Songs, „Blue Light“ und „Everybody’s Cool“ (mit leichten Parallelen zu „Burning Down The House“ und „Fame“), so, als wären die Talking Heads und David Bowie in die funky 80er Disco-Hölle gejagt worden. Als Fan von Metronomy („Won’t Do Nothing“), Hot Chip („High“), The Killers („Wonderful Life“) oder Scissor Sisters („Little Piggy“) kann einem „Keep Smiling“ ein Lächeln aufs Gesicht zaubern und wem das Debütalbum vom Two Door Cinema Club am Herzen liegt, der wird sich an „Lucky“ erfreuen.

Von „Keep Smiling“ gibt es vier auf jeweils 1250 Stück limitierte LP-Auflagen: magenta Vinyl, blue Vinyl, yellow Vinyl und  green Vinyl. Diese erscheinen jedoch erst Anfang November.

 

Cuts like "Blue Light" and "Millionaire" are wry art-pop pieces built around fizzy, Casio-sounding keyboard riffs, broken-glass guitar hits, and tropical disco grooves. A stylish paranoia runs throughout much of Keep on Smiling, as on "Everybody's Cool," a shimmering Euro-disco number that sounds like a vacation in Ibiza but feels like it's about social-media-induced FOMO. On "Lucky," Trimble seems to outline the album's bitter pill wrapped in sugar, singing "The entertainment's killing us again." That song, as well as "Wonderful Life," also harks back to the driving dance-rock of the band's first album. Elsewhere, we get the balmy midsummer balladry of "High" and the funky, Robert Palmer-esque club number "Feeling Strange." There's certainly a hooky immediacy to much of Keep on Smiling, but it's given depth by Two Door Cinema Club's increasingly artful and sardonic pop approach.

(All Music)

 

Second time around, the bouncing ‘80s synths of ‘Blue Light’ still land but feel familiar rather than fresh; some tracks - the peppy bounce of ‘Lucky’ or lead single ‘Wonderful Life’ - meanwhile just sound like classic Two Door with a different Casio setting. In the pockets where they do deviate from the formula (be that the old or more recent one), there are nods to next steps. ‘Millionaire’’s shoulder-shimmying verses have an aura of ABBA (a good thing), while ‘Won’t Do Nothing’ pits a funky Metronomy bass line with warped, affected vocals and deadpan chants. But Two Door can’t help but explode into a chart-friendly chorus, and as long as they populate almost every song, there’s only so much variation that can occur.

(DIY)