Zonoscope
The Age
Friday February 4, 2011
Zonoscope Cut Copy (Modular Recordings) RATING: 3/5ON NEED You Now, the opening tune from Cut Copy's third album Zonoscope, the Melbourne four-piece do their best to banish the artful stasis that defines their indie electro-pop. With its solemn vocal performance and Zooropa-era U2 keyboard swoon, the song refuses to be lost in the moment; demonstrative percussion adds to the track's desire to achieve something lasting. That's a not-insignificant step for Cut Copy, who've had a tendency to be pretty and wan. Zonoscope doesn't turn out to be a radical reworking but the various gambits including the jinking Afro-pop guitar on Take Me Over and the persuasive post-punk momentum of Alisa brighten more than mere corners. The 1967 pop of single Where I'm Going is sweetly accommodating but the band's curatorial penchant for keyboard sounds and standoffish lyrical stance still combine to keep them at a distance Cut Copy never quite envelop you because they're roped off, like a popular museum exhibition. Closer Sun God is a 15-minute long tutorial on electronic pop but it's a muddying of the trail that much of the rest of the record does well to blaze.
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