Two Door Cinema Club (TDCC) have been using their time in lockdown to re-organize the band’s back catalogue, it seems, and with unexpected results.
Lost Songs (Found), the Northern Irish trio’s surprise 5th June release, is an EP consisting of seven tracks which Alex Trimble and co. appear to have plucked from down the back of their collective sofa.
TDCC gave the world 24 hours notice ahead of their latest release, which is mostly made up of B-sides from their 2010 breakout album, Tourist History. It includes an original demo of one of their best-known and best-loved tracks, “Something Good Can Work,” as well as the first studio version of “Hands Off My Cash Monty.” This was a surprise which appears to have gone down rather well with TDCC fanatics judging by the replies to the band’s latest Twitter post.
https://twitter.com/TDCinemaClub/status/1268589803584532480
The latter is a typical TDCC track – close your eyes and you almost feel transported back to the halcyon pre-Covid, pre-Brexit days of the late noughties. “You’ve made it to the top just to get away / Guess you know what you’ve got and it’s here to stay” Trimble croons as he seems to pre-empt the huge success that his band would go on to enjoy throughout the next decade.
“Hands Off My Cash Monty” contrasts another previously unheard (or at least unofficial) track from Lost Songs (Found) – the more somber, reflective “Tiptoes.” “You ask for someone to help you / And no-one cares enough to look up / You can’t ask for someone to help you / If no-one cares” – small wonder TDCC’s sound resonated with so many angsty teenagers across the land back in the pre-Tourist History days.
According to Setlist.fm, TDCC have only ever performed the penultimate track “Impatience is a Virtue” live once, which is one more time than closer “Too Much Coffee”. If true (websites like Setlist can often be unreliable), this seems like a waste as both tracks combine to provide a pleasant and soft landing to this curious yet enjoyable EP.
The wait goes on for TDCC’s first full-length since False Alarm (2019), but Lost Songs (Found) provides a welcome 20-minute nostalgia trip to transport us away from these dark and difficult times.
