Keep On Smiling (Blue Vinyl)

Three and a half years after False Alarm, Northern Ireland’s Two Door Cinema Club return with their fifth album, Keep On Smiling — a record that finds the trio testing the limits of their buoyant electro-indie formula, with mixed but often thrilling results.

From the off, the band confound expectations. The brooding instrumental opener Messenger AD nods to John Carpenter or Stranger Things, depending on your cultural touchstone, setting a moody tone that feels like a bold feint. But what follows is, at its best, classic Two Door: crisp, motorik rhythms, jangly guitars, and sugar-rush synths built for festival fields and Stateside stadia alike.

The album shines brightest when the band lean into their indie-dance instincts. Tracks like Lucky are pure adrenaline, all driving basslines and falsetto hooks that lodge in the brain for days. Elsewhere, you catch flashes of unexpected influences — a hint of Sledgehammer here, an Aztec Camera flourish there, even a glimmer of Chris Isaak’s moodier side on the mid-album breather High.

In a crowded landscape of indie also-rans, Two Door Cinema Club’s knack for hooks and vibrant melodies remains unmistakable.