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It took a while for me to like this group, but now after about 2 months, I can truly say I love it. They have a good sound, easy to listen too, but not shallow. If you like other bands like, Digitalism, MGMT, Hot Chip, Empire of the Sun, or Daft Punk even, check these guys out. Their other album Bright Like Neon Love is also a good path to walk for a bit.
New Order, New Order, New OrderCut Copy had the audacity to start their album with acoustic guitars and only hint of ambient electronica swirling in the background. Its like Cut Copy realized that the fine line between IDM and Big Beat were in the primitive 80's rhythms and soundscapes, which allows for joyful mope music. For starters, there's not a bit of irony anywhere, no audible smirk in any of the vocals.
But then the bass line snakes in, and like when the synths hit at the 1:42 mark in 'Age of Consent' some twenty five years ago, everything starts to work magnificently. For instance, the Rob Base style "Whoo - Yeah" that acts as a pre chorus in "Hearts on Fire" is played straight, and actually works. To make matters worse they unleash a verse as bad as you can find on record: "All the girls I know are crying/ooo oooooo ooo/All the clouds have silver linings/ooo oooooo ooo".
In its place is a crisp aloofness, reminiscent of "True Faith" or "Take my Breath Away" that keeps the ballads from turning sappy and lends seriousness to all the sounds they pull out of the studio effects grab-bag. It would be very easy to write this whole disk off as a New Order ripoff, and there's nothing here that you couldn't accomplish with the cream of 1985's sonic technology. But In Ghost Colors avoids becoming a shallow revival play.
Repeat listens to the songs reveal touches of shoegaze and late nineties ambient music. Dance with your head down, bangs brushing your eyelids.More than any other release of the year, In Ghost Colors sounds like it arrived in the 80's for all the right reasons, even if hitched to a bandwagon.
dance-rock, it's always been difficult to correspond "indie" to "dance" or vice versa. Acoustic guitar and studio drums mesh unobtrusively with synthesizers and all manner of stereo effects, a gleaming array of instruments that rise and fall with Whitford's vocals but never overwhelm or clash. "So Haunted" calls to mind a more optimistic Interpol, one with a penchant for suddenly uprooting their droning guitar for a brighter, keyboard-friendly chorus.Even better, In Ghost Colours is full of genuine songs - forget dance-rock bands that catapult onto the scene with one smash hit and an album of filler. "Far Away" is a sinfully catchy new wave piece that sounds like it was pulled out of a time machine from 1985, yet the splashes of live drumming, Whitford's not-too-little, not-too-much vocals and clattering synth breakdown are entirely `00s. Sounds like a lot. The resulting over-saturation of electro-pop, techno-lite music has become impossible to ignore and even harder to tolerate, and so it's refreshing to hear a record like Australian group Cut Copy's sophomore effort In Ghost Colours, an album so unabashedly fun and free of postmodern irony that it's an almost unreasonably good time.
A heady blend of `80s-tinged synth pop, whirling atmospheric electronica, and frothy, carefree pop, it's music that holds itself above no one and caters to everyone. And as you can guess, it's pretty damn catchy too.It's all there on opener "Feel The Love," where a squelching burst of keyboards attached to a robust drum beat feeds into a guitar strumming along in major-key bliss while synths soar overhead, the bass pumps out a slinky disco groove and vocalist Dan Whitford's unassuming tenor holds it all together. The indie scene's love affair with dance music has always been an iffy proposition - from the two-step shuffle commonly associated with scenesters at concerts to the fairly awkward relationship many fans have with "cool" (read: hip, Pitchfork-approved, etc). Cut Copy are not revolutionaries of the dance-rock world, and the last thing In Ghost Colours has done is create something new and wholly original. He works seemingly effortless magic here, from the moody house jam of "Lights and Music" to the psychedelic space rock of "So Haunted" to the trippy, slow-jam mega-hit (in Australia, at least) "Hearts On Fire," infusing the band's disparate styles into a vigorous whole. The sequencing is particularly well thought-out, separating many of the full tracks with one-minute mood pieces that enhance rather than detract from the record's flow and make fifteen tracks enjoyable rather than painfully long.Perhaps the album's strongest point is its ability to take and borrow from dozens of influences, yet never come off as overly derivative or mere hacks, as so many of their scene peers have. Rather, it's an eclectic effort that is an excellent example of painstakingly refined craftsmanship; a purely pop album meticulously put together for maximum summer enjoyment, yet one that loses nothing in immediacy or creativity.
The record is a massive pastiche of musical styles, a neon-bright watercolor of `80s new wave, rave-ready dance, and sunny pop melodies that keep everything nicely packed together into four-minute slices of old and new. With the recent upswing in dance-oriented groups and accompanying critically-acclaimed albums like Hot Chip, Justice, and LCD Soundsystem, it's become okay, nay, necessary for fans formerly just fine with a four-piece rock band to kick out the DJ sets and neon shirts and actually move those Doc Martens. The sexy guitar pulse and spiraling chorus of "Nobody Lost, Nobody Found;" the out-of-left-field country-rock gem "Strangers In The Wind;" the cheerfully anthemic "Unforgettable Season;" this is a record that leaves a lasting impression and an overwhelming desire to go through it again, as a whole. It is, and it's true of In Ghost Colours in general. Producer Tim Goldworthy of DFA deserves much of the credit. It's rare to find a collection of songs like In Ghost Colours, particularly in a genre and era where it's practically impossible to find something that hasn't been done before. A vibrant amalgam that will no doubt prove as timeless as pop music itself, it not only makes it okay to dance, it makes it f***ing righteous.
Heart On Fire builds itself up with layers of sonic beauty into a huge thumping bass attack that you cannot stop dancing (or bobbing) to. Being Co-Produced by Tim Goldsworthy of DFA also seemed to help. Everything on this album seems louder, richer, deeper, and better than the previous. This album has basically been playing in every dance club in every major city since it was released, it is that big. Everything is polished to a gleam, and the beats are louder and radder than ever. Strangers In The Wind is a gorgeous, airy, melancholy tribute to lost love without losing it's danceability.
Most bands would not be able to acheive a sound of this magnitude. And the previous album was damn good. Yet CC went all the way. They took everything that was good and pushed it further. Building upon their 2003 release (Bright Like Neon Love), in every way, Elektro Dance Punk group Cut Copy returns with an album of stunning magnitude. From Day Glo Melodies to rainbow colored guitar hooks, everything is a blinding light you cannot resist. Just put on your wayfarers and pretend that the sun is out.
The first single Lights and Music absolutely blows up. Lyrically, they are in the same territory although the songwriting has matured and the choruses absolutely blast themselves off the chart. The songs here are more fully realized, their potential has been fully explored and pushed. This is a fun album, and radiates with positivity and joy. Part Love Letter, part dance pop single, part 80's homage, the song is huge.
They have perfected their post mod almalgamation of retro 80's synth attacks, radical guitar riffs, vivid vocoder vocals, and dance pop beats that jump out of the speakers. Creatively, they are in the same territory, no major shifts, except maybe more focus on overlapping sonic elements. There are also several interludes that give the album a larger than life feeling. Cut Copy has a huge sound and after you get this album you will not forget that.
Cut Copy have definitely roared back with an even bigger sound than in their debut album fours years ago. The beats are heavier, the guitars are louder, and the vocals are more layered. This all makes for a great listen throughout the whole record. If you love new wave this is a must have.
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