False Alarm

With staggeringly little fuss, Two Door Cinema Club spent a decade becoming one of Britain’s biggest bands. Their route: irrepressible indie choruses built for very large festival crowds, motivational gym playlists and TV soundtracks. Their fourth album doesn’t reject the band’s USP but does mark a subtle evolution. Perhaps buoyed by their success subtly angling 2016’s <i>Gameshow</i> towards dance floors, here the band take full gyrations. <i>False Alarm</i> is loose, alive, thoughtful and enriched by interesting guest artists—Zimbabwean Afrofusion outfit Mokoomba and Chicago rapper Open Mike Eagle—and crucially, none of it feels forced.<br /> Supercharged singles “Talk” and “Satellite” will sit comfortably with the classics in their live set; “Break” (“from the McCartney school of songwriting,” singer Alex Trimble has said) is the most charming thing they’ve ever recorded, while the cowbell-rich and Talking Heads-indebted “Nice to See You” makes excellent use of a charismatic Open Mike Eagle verse.