In a world full of X Factor, Britains Got Talent and other programmes for the barely talented fame hungry public it’s becoming increasingly rare to find a hard working group see their passion and hunger for success to pay off.

Luckily, for the rest of us, there is still hope. Bands such as Friendly Fires and more recently Delphic are proving to be exceptions to this modern Simon Cowell enforced rule. With bands like this breaking into the Cowell dominated charts and frequent airplay on Radio 1 it seems the battle hasn’t quite been fought just yet.

2010 is shaping up to be one of the best years in a while for new music and leading the charge are three young men from Northen Ireland. Let me introduce you to the sublime talents of Two Door Cinema Club, and their debut album Tourist History, an early contender for any album of the year award.

It’s an album that shows musical maturity and creativity way beyond their 3 years as a band. The way with which the album flows seemingly from song to song and the consistency and brilliance of every track really sets this album apart from a lot of the debut albums that have been released over the last few years, including that of Delphic’s.

Album opener ‘Cigarettes In The Theatre’ sets the tone for the album with it’s frenetic intro and Bloc Party sounding guitars slowly settling down into the opening verse and the superb vocals of lead singer Alex Trimble. The chorus is about as good as indie-pop can get, with it’s catchy guitar and piercing vocals, this song on it’s own takes you on a journey, as does the whole album, but within 3:34 you are shown the hype is not only deserved but under whelming.

They have been releasing singles for over a year now and several of them feature on Tourist History but, like ‘Cigarettes In The Theatre‘, they have been re recorded and have been given a little bit more in every department. This is the same for the fantastic ‘Something Good Can Work’ which was one of their earliest singles but with the re recording and added extras it now feels as fresh and brilliant as it did 12 months ago. It’s another track that is hard to ignore and hard to not sing along to, using a similar formula throughout the album, the sharp catchy guitars and the utilisation of Alex’s fantastic vocals make for a brilliantly consistent and unique bend on indie-pop.

The real test of any band’s album must surely be the album tracks. The tracks the public haven’t heard before and the band have no real feedback on. The band throw one of these tracks in as the second song of the album; ‘Come Back Home’ opens with a surge of foals-esque guitars which disappear in the first verse and then jump straight back out at you in the simply brilliant chorus. After just one listen you feel comfortable with the song and it immediately feels a part of the Two Door Cinema Club ‘club’.

The Frenetic, scratchy lead guitar is shown off best in recent re release ‘Undercover Martyn‘. A similar surge of foals like rhythm powers through the whole song with only the intensity changing during the chorus and the subtle electro sound effects complimenting the guitar and drums brilliantly.

It’s seems to becoming more and more common for albums, especially debut albums, to dip towards the end and give the impression that it has been rushed. In the case of Tourist History it is the opposite, the two closing tracks; ‘Eat up, it’s good for you’ and ‘You’re not stubborn’ are two of the standout tracks on the album and show a slightly different side to the band. With similar sharp guitar exchanges and fast paced drum beats, the songs take a slightly slower pace and in both cases build up subtly into the indie-pop gem’s we are now coming to expect of the band.

The band have managed to create an album that all indie-pop fans will enjoy, if not love, but at the same time they have managed to make an incredibly unique album that touches and flirts with sounds of other bands but never quite enough for someone to say “This sounds like ________”

Mr Cowell seems to have the chart his way these days, but on the evidence of this, just how long for? Album of the year anyone? I think so.

9/10

Harry Moore