Welcome to your weekly therapy,

Today’s medicine: Two Door Cinema Club’s Beacon.

Tourist History was an incredible debut album for this Northern Ireland band. I had a chance to see them a couple years back for cheap, but sadly I missed out. I know this would have been an entertaining show with loads of dancing involved. And if you’ve seen the video for “What You Know”, then you know the kind of dancing I’m talking about, choreographed of course!

I’ll be talking about their newest album Beacon. I feel like it’s an extension of Tourist History, as in it’s equally as entertaining and of a similar style (Yes, that’s a great thing in this case). Right off the bat with “Next Year” you know that it is going to be a head-bobbing album. Most of their songs start with a slow drum electronic drum beat with a tasty bass line which is as delicious as bacon (Bacon/Beacon, coincidence?). Either way, thank you Master Chef Kevin Baird, bass player extraordinaire, for cooking up these rifts. Next their guitarist, Sam Halliday, proceeds to play solo guitar melodies which shift and morph as the song progresses. He manages to transition between the many segments of the song so smoothly that even though each song is only 3 to 4 minutes long, you feel like you’ve been on a much longer journey.

I’ll throw up the title track since I believe it accurately describes what I’ve been talking about above. Just listen to how this sound comes together and pay attention to the changes each time a verse or chorus is played again, so well-crafted and ever-evolving. I really hope Two Door Cinema Club comes back to Montreal/Canada soon, because I could dance to this album all night, and have already done so (just not at a live performance).

My favourite song off of Beacon at the moment is “Sun”. I get a smile on my face immediately after hearing those first words “Ocean blue, what have I done to you?” by lead singer Alex Trimble with his silvery voice – an extremely pleasant harmonized voice to listen to. Then an amazing “Icky Thump”-like guitar rift with a smooth, sliding bass guitar kicks in leading up to a funky,bass heavy chorus with a brass ensemble. What more could you ask for?

Thanks for reading and make sure to check back every Thursday!

Have fun with this mix, it is the vocals for “What You Know” over the instrumentals from “In My Place” by Coldplay.

– Karly D