To finish off my bank holiday weekend of posts, I’m continuing my series looking at major rock bands from the last decade – showing that while rock may not dominate the charts like it once did, it’s far from gone.

A great example for me is local band Two Door Cinema Club. Releasing their debut album Tourist History in 2010, they’ve become festival mainstays with a catalogue of anthems. While they only got into the UK Top 40 singles chart once, even breaking through at all is notable – and “What You Know” has gone far beyond that, with over a billion Spotify streams. They have also had the blessing of being on many FIFA soundtracks of course!

That song comes from that aforementioned debut album – what I am looking at today. Some people may argue that Two Door aren’t that much of a rock band. I don’t really enjoy their work after this debut album, outside of a few songs, as I believe it became too light indie pop for me. However, I definitely hear the rock n roll in this debut album. In a way, you could call this post “Finding The Rock N Roll In Two Door Cinema Club.”

The band didn’t have a drummer to play on their music at this time, and thus used a drum machine. They did pick pretty organic sounds, so it does feel like a band – yet simultaneously having a very danceable feel. The album also does have a slightly quirky vibe and good sense of groove – the album mostly consists of pleasant chord progressions starting on the major root chord. Some of their later work has poppier chord progressions (similar to my recent Catfish & The Bottlemen post) which I don’t like so much.

A defining feature is the high, melodic guitar lines that appear across almost every track – layered over chunkier rhythm parts. It’s a simple formula, but an effective one. At times, it feels like a more dance-oriented take on local band Ash, with hints of the classic Talking Heads in the rhythmic feel.

*brilliant episode of local comedian Shane Todd’s Tea With Me podcast, featuring Two Door guitarist Sam Halliday. I don’t find Todd incredibly funny, but his podcast is great and I find some of his characters (such as Mike McGoldrick) hilarious.

Overall, Tourist History is very consistent. The energy never faulters, and even though the tracks do sound very similar, it remains engaging. It does have a jolly sound, but the distorted guitars keep it from sounding too twee, in my opinion.

While Two Door Cinema Club are a great example of a local band achieving global success, they also reinforce the wider point of this series – that rock bands were still breaking through in the 2010s, even within a more pop-dominated chart landscape.