Following on from the characteristically eccentric, multi-textured escapades heard during sophomore recording Both Ways Open Jaws, Franco-Finnish duo The Dø produced some of their most catchy material to date, regurgitating the kind of essential, and essentially digestible collection of which they’ve always seemed eminently capable: Shake Shook Shaken. Effusive praise notwithstanding, however, their reliance on said record doesn’t necessarily render Olivia Bouyssou Merilahti and Dan Levy’s show at Brixton’s Electric the sort that you’ll be kicking yourself for not catching in the bleak midweek in this grim midst of yearly festive frenzy…

What with it being Christmas ’n’ all, I’ll stop short of Frank Cross-esque curmudgeonliness; nevertheless, there is forever, irrespective of seasonal relevance, a fine line between genius and gimmickry, and it’s seemingly one which Merilahti and Levy could do with toeing that bit more attentively. This isn’t to say that moments conforming to the former quality are spare: tiptoeing onstage, enswathed in smoke, there is an operatic theatricality to opener A Mess Like This which one Lloyd Webber would doubtless condone, not least at this (at least ostensibly) “most wonderful time of the year”; Keep Your Lips Sealed, evocative as much of Damon Albarn’s lo-fi tourbus bumblings (Gorillaz’ The Fall) as it is a bubblegummy Gwen Stefani workout, sticks; Miracles (Back In Time) both sees and hears the eternally matryoshkan Merilahti twist and turn through a dumbfounding few minutes reminiscent of Joseph Mount, Busy Gangnes and Melissa Livaudais Bathroom Gurgling in a Parisian pied-à-terre.

But whether this be due to Merilahti’s mimicking the monotonous routines of a ramp service agent, replete with a pair of marshalling wands, the Come Together-cum-American Pie-goes-Sheryl Crow wishy-washiness of Trustful Hands, or the incongruous nod to post-punk frippery that is The Bridge Is Broken – from their perhaps appositely indigestible début album, A Mouthful – the duo’s genius is often undermined by a conformity to a quirkiness that, although largely genuine, also feels slightly forced at times.

Moreover, superlative though it may be for the most part, airing the aesthetically aeronautical Shake Shook Shaken in nigh on its entirety seems a somewhat rogue move, the juddering ’80s stutterings of the unabashedly Bootylicious Going Through Walls and the similarly schizophrenic Opposite Ways inspiring precious little movement on the floor. Both Lick My Wounds and Sparks, both slower and way better measured, demonstrate the pair’s rare penchant for rarefied, nonpareil balladry; but aside from the stylistically comparable, and commensurately beautiful Dust It Off, this sits rather awkwardly with the bombastic ballast which otherwise makes up so much of this evening’s performance.

It is, and presumably always will be, the way with The Dø that they perform – and make a song and dance of proceedings they indubitably do – if not for the masses, then for the massively invested who’ve impatiently waited on tonight for months now. (This particular show was rescheduled from late October, lest we forget.) Nonetheless, aside from a devastating rendition of the Ratatat-y Despair, Hangover & Ecstasy that is, rather aptly, equal parts euphoric and frenetic, with “so many people around, [they] disappoint and let down,” try their best though they may…