Two Door Cinema Club – Keep On Smiling (Vinyl)

The fifth album from the Bangor trio, released on Lower Third in Europe and Glassnote in USA in 2022 and something of a full-circle moment, twelve years on from their Choice-winning debut Tourist History. Recorded between lockdown and the world reopening, it is their sunniest and most danceable record, pushing further into the disco and funk territory they began exploring on Gameshow and False Alarm while keeping the fiendishly catchy hooks that made their name.

Wonderful Life delivers grandiose 80s alt-pop with one of their best choruses in years, Everybody's Cool tips a cap to longtime touchstone Prefab Sprout, and Little Piggy is the wild card, a Prince-meets-En Vogue oddity complete with an outrageous guitar solo. Bookended by the atmospheric Messenger AD and HD instrumentals and wrapped in playful retro artwork by Alan Fears, it is the sound of a band choosing joy and making it stick. Floor-fillers from front to back.