Two Door Cinema Club - Gameshow

Two Door Cinema Club
Gameshow
2016
Spotify

Gameshow is the third album from Irish trio Two Door Cinema Club. After two widely successful albums and tons of stellar remixes from those albums the band comes into Gameshow at a bit of a crossroads: They can either stay the course or try to change things up. Well on Gameshow we see a much more 80s inspired album complete with neo-soul, disco and funk. The first song is a bit of a throwaway making very little impact one way or another but, "Bad Decisions" is where we get the real first taste of their new style. It is very similar to what M83 did on Junk but less sitcom and more late night dance party. The 80s shine is really quite intense but it never fully goes over the cheese edge letting in some cutting lyrics. There are however a few flubs. "Lavender" in particular drops almost the entire lower end out and instead relies on a tight drum machine to keep any kind of rhythm. Alex Trimbel's vocals are also filtered within an inch of their life for much of the album really drowning them in a sea of weirdness. Their new style really works on uptempo stuff as long as it has a strong rhythmic grounding but when the songs slow to a midtempo or even down the cracks in the exterior show themselves and the songs fall flat.

On "Fever" Trimbel's falsetto is so incredibly grading that any nice points the song may have are simply washed away. There are a lot of times where the vocals seem to get in the way of the music and two stumble over each other. What you expect from Two Door Cinema Club is really great electropop songs and siding more towards the indie than straight up pop. That sense of discovering something new is not here, this music has been done and is constantly being done. The robotic "Surgery" really just goes on far to long for anyone to care, which for a pop record is a problem on Gameshow. Most songs hit the four minute and beyond mark which just extends something that is supposed to be a quick hit, not an extended dance mix. For a genre that is getting more and more crowded these days Two Door Cinema Club simply have not done enough to really set themselves apart. Certainly not their best outing but also not a terrible moment experimentation.

6.5 out of 10