Two Door Cinema Club
Beacon

The Two Door Cinema Club feel improved. And why contradict them at the end of listening to one of the best albums of 2012? The first Tourist History was positively judged, but it was still too "rustic" compared to the sounds that this Beacon can give us: melodic, subtle, indie with just the right amount of dance. A spot-on production is one of the fundamental pieces for a complete puzzle, and it seems the Northern Irish band has understood this.

It starts with the synths of "Next Year," which open the album in the best way. "Handshake" (an absolute masterpiece of the band for me) completes the opening pair and makes way for another noteworthy song: "Wake Up" (highlighting the line "you got lost, lost to the night"). "Sun" lowers the tempo but not the album's level: with its trumpets, it impeccably opens the heart of the album, represented by the exceptional "Someday" - which contains at about 2:40 the most beautiful part of the album in my opinion - and "Sleep Alone." "The World Is Watching" is very expressive but, despite the melodic Valentina's choirs, cannot keep up with the previous ones or the following "Settle": linear voices, drums, synths, trumpets, and bass for one of the most beautiful songs on the album. It is followed by "Spring," which is particularly striking for its delicate chorus. "Pyramid" has little of delicate and remains at high levels. The final "Beacon" is designed precisely to close. It starts practically instrumental and continues like this until Trimble's verses, which don't really represent a true chorus... it decrees that this second musical effort by the Two Door Cinema Club is even superior to the dance bomb of Tourist History.