Cut Copy – Zonoscope

After my celestial experience with 2008’s charmingly haunted In Ghost Colours, I couldn’t imagine the terms in which I’d be similarly effected by a Cut Copy album clearly preoccupied with an impending doom (see album cover). However, when a close friend sent me an email saying, “Cut Copy – Zonoscope / For the love of God, download buy this RIGHT NOW”, I couldn’t resist.

Excuse the old cliché, but Cut Copy’s Zonoscope brings something new to the apocalypse aesthetic. Where other similar albums have relied heavily on tracks predicating the signs and times of “the End of the World”, the notion of impending doom takes a back seat, and in the foreground emerge the emotions and feelings of personal attachment and a deep affection for others that should pervade the minds of the ill-fated. The kind of light-hearted approach that made their previous album sooo good.

This is immediately evident in album opener, “Need You Now”. As the track intro builds in tension, its coolly hushed by Dan Whitford’s repeated “I Need You Now’s” exclaiming the importance of connectedness and intimacy over anger and panic.

But Zonoscope isn’t all business, as Cut Copy make a significant departure from the dance-rock and pop sounds of In Ghost Colours, but still maintain the sun-soaked sparkle and anthem-rock signature to the party-starting trio. Zonoscope stand-outs “Take Me Over”and “Pharaohs and Pyramids” are sure to be some of this summer’s best festival dance tracks while “Sun God” a likely show-stopping closer.

Hoey says he and his bandmates will be reinventing their live show and figuring out how to bring Zonoscope to life onstage. “We’ve created this new world with the record, and we certainly want the new live show to represent that, to take it into new territory,” he says.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR7CgTxZKaY]

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