Top 5 Two Door Cinema Club Songs
Updated: Sep 2
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Two Door Cinema Club are back with a string of recent summer music festival dates across the UK, and an upcoming tour of the Americas. At the end of 2025 they released a 15-year anniversary edition of Tourist History, the debut album which announced them as Northern Ireland's next, or perhaps first, pop-rock-synth-electric three-piece. They made a name for themselves with their jingly-jangly, upbeat debut single 'Something Good Can Work', which not only gained loads of airtime through being chosen as iTunes single of the week, and featuring in various TV programmes such as The Inbetweeners. In short, their catchy, generally sub-three-minute tracks caught the attention of the listener.
While they may not win any awards for groundbreaking musicality or innovation (that's not to say there's nothing interesting going on in their composition), they have found a style, maybe we could even say a formula, and made a success of it. When we look at the history of music to come out of Northern Ireland, they also represent a slight departure, or at least an interesting compromise between rock and pop. I suppose their predecessors are bands like Ash and Snow Patrol, but I'd argue TDCC are much poppier and commercial, and consistently upbeat, in their sound than those bands. Definitely with Ash, and to a lesser extent Snow Patrol, there's more of a sense of angst and, with the former, repressed anger and punk sensibility. TDCC are much chirpier and preppy than their forebears. Think of Vampire Weekend meets The Thrills and you're in the right ballpark with TDCC.
This chirpiness and preppiness leads to an immediacy with their music, but I've yet to be convinced about the ability of their music to withstand and indeed reward repeated listening. Listening to their songs is like eating Haribo or Maoam, sweet, immediate, a but fruit at times, a bit of a sour hit at times, and then it's gone, but too many and we can feel a little over-sugared.
The formula of their tracks that I spoke of earlier, generally goes something like: guitar or surprising catchy opening, which then jumps to a contrasting verse, followed by a short blast of a memorable chorus, followed by another verse, middle eight, verse, chorus, and sudden end. And, well, it works for them. I do think, though, they may want to think about ways of developing this approach in future, and perhaps working with a new producer might help this.
Anyway, there's a certain nostalgia about their music, being made at that golden period of indie-pop-rock circa 2010, and here are my top 5 picks. Some of you might say they only have about five tracks, but I think that's a tad unfair, and this could have stretched to 10 but I think these five tracks are a good place to start.
One of aspects about this band I haven't mentioned yet that endears them to me is the unashamed Northern Irish intonation of the lead vocals, and it's there to hear very clearly in this track which possibly has their most notable guitar riff. I think this gives this otherwise very polished and commercialised outfit a bit of texture and grit and character to their songwriting. You can hear it in the chorus here of 'get in the car seat, cause you're not up to going' which captures something of the Ulster vernacular nicely. It conforms to the formula I spoke of above, though, and you can hear it plainly as the high octane opening then contrasts with the slower opening verse. What is an Undercover Martyn? Dunno, but I defy anyone not to find this catchy, and worthy of turning up the volume.
Wait, maybe this one has their best guitar riff (see the opening of the track). They are band that definitely has knack for a good guitar riff, but my only criticism sometimes is that their songs can just seem like a patchwork of riffs as opposed to unified songs. It's interesting to listen back to music of that period (circa 2010) as we get the sense of bands that were perhaps a product of the time and a music industry chasing a sound, as opposed to bands that were genuinely doing something new. What, therefore, are TDCC: product or producer? It's a question their music poses, but I Can Talk shows a slight edge, or shift away from the sugariness of some of their other work. The loud, fast, vibrato guitar really drives this one forward and would make it a good opener for this forthcoming tour sets.
Wait. Maybe this has their best guitar riff. In fact, this maybe their best track yet. The Northern Irish vocal is unimpeded and really shines through, and this track probably showcases the TDCC songwriting formula I spoke of earlier at its best. Yes, it's repetitive, and no it doesn't really make us question anything about human existence and neither does it resonate down the corridors and halls of deep meaning, but it's a bona fide pop-rock hit, and all the better for not being too deep and introspective.
How short is too short for a pop song? This song is 2:47 and I think that's the minimum limit for pop songs. In fact, I think this track may well set the standard for the short pop song. Any longer and it would be repetitive and any shorter and it wouldn't be worth listening to. It packs a lot in and really shows a band at the start of a career, and like most bands, the early hit is generally a microcosm of everything that's to follow; this one is no exception to that rule. The question for the band, though, is how have they developed their songwriting since this? It's a question they and their management should continue to ask themselves if they really want to evolve.
The band re-issued this single in November 2025, and the above video functions as a nostalgic look back over their career to date. I like this one. It's repetitive, but there's a searching sensibility about it, and the vibrato guitar works to great effect here. 'If this is the life then who'd argue?' goes the chorus and it's clear the band have had a successful run over the past 15 years, and here's to more innovation and evolution from them over the next 15.
