Dylan Jones: Man about town

If you see their jaunty pop promos or ever watch them live, County Down band Two Door Cinema Club (so named when guitarist Sam Halliday mispronounced the name of the Tudor Cinema in Bangor) sort of crouch down, curling over their instruments, as though they've possibly only just learnt to play them. This is engaging, and makes them appear even younger than they are. In preppy jumpers, plimsolls and sports jackets, they look not unlike Haircut 100, Orange Juice, or any other floppy-fringed boy band of the past 30 years.

Their wide-ranging influences include Broken Social Scene, Stars, Stevie Wonder, At The Drive-in, Idlewild, Death Cab For Cutie, John Denver, Kylie Minogue and Mew. And "Something Good Can Work", their landmark single, "I Can Talk" and "What You Know" are almost as good as anything by any of the above. Their publishers and record company have not shied away from obvious marketing ruses, and their songs have been used on soundtracks, TV shows and ad campaigns.

Starting off with the jangle is fair enough – it's where a lot of bands start, wanting to sound a little like the Beatles, the Byrds, Marshall Crenshaw, or indeed Foals – but it's where the jangle leads that turns the idea into a journey. As Two Door Cinema Club begin recording their second album – moving on from the "small pop songs" on their first ("If you want to play stadiums then you've got to write stadium songs," says bassist Kevin Baird), they should be mindful of Saul Bellow, who said, "any artist should be grateful for a naïve grace which puts him beyond the need to reason elaborately". Which means keeping the jangle.

Dylan Jones is the editor of 'GQ'