2010 was a weird one, wasn’t it? It was a time of sunshine and rainbows compared to the wall to wall discontent and misery of 2020. A pre-Boris, pre-Brexit paradise and a time where Corona was still just 3 for 5 in Spoons.

A volcano ash cloud in Iceland with a name like a yoghurt ground air travel to a halt. The pope came to town, the Chilean miners were freed, the iPad was released but Strongbow Dark Fruit wasn’t and I was sat in my parent’s house sneaking episodes of The Inbetweeners with my beans on toast.

2009 played out as a big year for indie in the UK as Florence & The Machine debuted with Lungs, Arctic Monkeys were still good with Humbug, The XX released their self-titled, Kasabian set the summer on Fire and Mumford & Sons temporarily made banjos cool again only to go and wreck it. My iPod grew and grew as The Horrors, Biffy Clyro, Jamie T, Franz Ferdinand, Bombay Bicycle Club, Empire Of The Sun, MGMT, Doves, The Drums and La Roux all released albums in 2009. NME was king.

2010 arrived and the opening months were ready to cram one more indie classic into our ears. Tourist History by Two Door Cinema Club was released 17th February 2010 via french label Kitsune and its youthful escapism has just celebrated its 10th birthday.

I first discovered it thanks to Eat It Up, Its Good For You being iTunes free single of the week- remember that? Casio beats met indie licks as they battled it out between lyrics of spaceships, drinking in your room and teenage angst before a big wall of noise greeted the final chorus to expel the rest of its energy. Perfect, you’ve got me!

Surrounding the release of the album, Babysweet Sessions created an intimate film about the early days of the Tourist History trajectory capturing the trio during press highlights, exclusive interviews and their release show at the Nouveau Casino in Paris in February 2010.

The trio had a real buzz behind them in Paris and caught the ears of the late Philippe Zdar who had worked with Phoenix and Chromeo. Working with the tracks, Zdar was intrigued to see how the band would create a dynamic sound to match the number of sounds in the recording. “Fuck, its crazy what is happening” Zdar reflected upon seeing the crowd erupt as the trio from Bangor, Northern Ireland were accepted as Paris’ own.

The group signed to Paris creative community label Kitsune who at the time had more of a focus for French electronica and high fashion. The label worked alongside other British acts like Hot Chip and Bloc Party before them. The label booked Two Door Cinema Club to play an event in Paris and later label boss Gildas Loaec signed them up after being charmed by the trio’s sound, attitude, image and possibilities. Loaec saw it more of an opportunity to initiate a creative relationship instead of ticking boxes off for albums like a major label.

Artists that could have signed to major labels at the time decided to sign for Kitsune as it helped put a special light of respect onto them. Kitsune was “three cool trendsetters who loved music and whatever they loved they invested in,” says French blog editor Chryde in the film as Kitsune ran as a name people could trust.

London indie producer Eliot James was brought in to help to find a balance between having a live drummer but also allowing for electronic elements and drum pads to shine through in the mix. Zdar was signed up to help co-mix the album after taking their demos on holiday to immerse himself whilst driving through the French riviera with them. Zdar grasped what they wanted immediately: sunshine melodies with massive catchy hooks. His background with french synth-pop duo Cassius was crucial as it brought the dancefloor elements to the record with his mix.

The lack of funding wasn’t a problem as impressively Zdar took a large pay drop to work with the album- such was the prominence of the talent on show.

Straight from the start with Cigarettes in the Theatre and Come Back Home the essence of Tourist History is there for all to see, the hasty melodies within the verses and guitars are contrasted with the euphoric, hands-in-the-air choruses- all mashed together with the sweet essence of indie disco which mixes the dancefloor and the bedroom walls.

This Is The Life arrives in a haze of optimism and a riff that sticks with you (not least thanks to John Lewis.) It is an anthem for sunny days and mates, it is the end of the semester, it is a pep talk in the mirror, an arm around your friends, its finishing work early and running home, it is all the nights you wish you could relive omitting all the memories you aim to forget.

A reworked version of their debut single Something Good Can Work follows as the jiving bass and guitar oscillate around verses of moving away as lead singer Alex Trimble sings: “Got a little competition now, you’re going to find it hard to cope with living on your own now.”

It’s a track that sums up the almost quaint naivety of Tourist History as it roots you down to both home and the familiar whilst dreaming of the new beginning of distant horizons.

The distinct childlike euphoria that surrounds the album is a reason why it resonates with so many people still today, it’s nothing groundbreaking or heavy-hitting its music for escapists and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

The shimmering tremolo of I Can Talk shows up scrambling between the drum pads as the glitchy instrumental rises to an exuberant final chorus to make you throw your jeans on and get that taxi to your friend’s place you had been considering since pressing play.

Undercover Martyn is everything a good indie-pop track should be. The magnum opus of everyone that wears chequered shirts over t-shirts on nights out. It’s debating whether it’s worth it to still be standing in the queue waiting for the £2 warm Red Stripe before it hits half 11. It’s hearing it come on during an indie club night and pegging it out the bogs and/or the smoking area to find your mates on the dancefloor to relish in the good times. It’s the growing and growing elation within the track, the drums, the building castanets, and the chorus that makes you dance like you don’t care who sees. It is a track that brings people together as it earworms its way into your psyche with its catchiness.

Just as you think you’re going back to the bar to get that Red Stripe, the unashamedly pop riff of What You Know comes in. You’re not leaving that dance floor. A mixing pot of frantic drums and pleasure-seeking guitar licks leading to the singalong chorus that stands it apart from its brash, lager swilling indie counterparts of the late 00s.

For NME Song Stories in 2012, Trimble discussed the origins of What You Know as it was inspired by the people they had left behind in Northern Ireland as they dived into career uncertainty with the band. Bassist Kevin Baird adds that the track made the publishing company tear upon first listen, least not because of the terrible original title in Lipnip. The trio was determined in their belief that the track would be big and as the successful release peaked it proved to be the track that Trimble was most proud of from the album.

Tourist History is an enchantingly addictive indie disco classic that wades through the detritus of the indie landfill to stand strong today a decade later. It’s an album for dreamers, chasers and escapists.

Tourist History flipped life on its head for the Northern Ireland trio as the near-constant touring schedule across the globe led them to starry heights far beyond where their drum loops and youthful licks could have envisaged. They went from the tiny Parisian clubs shows to playing London’s O2 in three years. Along the way, they caught the eye of Kanye West, met Prince Charles on the hunt for a “cool new band” at Glastonbury and even drew in a bigger crowd than Arcade Fire at Oxegen 2010.

Success eventually came at a price as jumping straight from school onto the road for years of touring and the heavy release schedule of the band’s second album Beacon took its toll as Trimble was hospitalised for stress-related illnesses. In an interview with the Guardian in 2016, he admitted “We pushed it too hard for too long. Together 24/7, almost 365 days a year, we were doing over 200 shows a year plus the travelling, records and video shoots – we were never apart. It was physically and mentally draining, and we got that point in early to mid-2013 where we all agreed that it just wasn’t worth it. We didn’t want to be around one another for a very long time.”

Two Door Cinema Club continued to please fans with their hedonistic yet still twee indie rock in 2016’s Gameshow and 2019’s False Alarm. They remain a staple of that Sunday evening festival sunset slot as they triumphantly closed out Truck Festival 2019 as I was in attendance in the beaming Oxfordshire sun.

As the chorus for This Is The Life rang out across the sun-scorched fields everything was just fine, the friendships made and gained being hooked up onto shoulders, the warm pints in the air, the fireworks shooting into the sky, the sunburn, the good times, the broken tents and the envied remaining camping chairs all coupled with the unnerving issue of getting home in the morning- all the troubles no longer existed. Pure bliss.

Truck Festival! That was a lorry fun! pic.twitter.com/fZfoUptp3M — Two Door Cinema Club (@TDCinemaClub) July 29, 2019

There is a special place for songs like this, the care-free dreamland that exists in moments when you’re surrounded by 1000s of people all on the same wavelength brought together by the same music is special. It’s that escapism quality that brings people back to Tourist History still ten years on. The naive soundtrack offers a release from the dirges of modern life and reminds people what brought them to the band in the first place- to have some fun.

Tourist History is about those fun moments in life. It is the fiver you found your pocket you didn’t know you had. It is seeing an old friend after months apart and it being like you barely left. It is eternal summers and distant nostalgia. It is everything an indie-pop release should be- an unashamedly fun display about living for today without thinking about tomorrow.