By Odeisel

Austrian Electro Pop band Cut Copy has delivered an album that is sure to get some people out on the dance floor and others pining for a new Brat pack movie with their latest release Zonoscope, an album heavy on 80’s Europop sound, tons of synth and mounds of thump.

Many of the tracks on this album reflect that 80’s feel including lead song “Need You Now,” which features heavy thump and very danceable digital strings. The vocals also reflect that era. “Take Me Over” keeps that vein going with a decidedly more upbeat tempo. Fast guitars and harder drums take control on the bridge as a xylophone plunks beneath towering synth. This song in particular resonates with that John Hughes-movie-credits-rolling feel.

Things get a bit more modern and conventional on “Where I’m Going.” The track features a stampeding drum analogous to Queen’s classic “We Will Rock You” alongside a simple guitar riff. There is background harmony and cheerleader “yeahs” interspersed throughout. A guitar riff similar to Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” is delivered at a different pitch and phase with trance-like vocals on the refrain.

“Pharoahs and Pyramids” features rubberband reverb and strong bass along with steel drum elements. The short track bleeds directly into “Blink And You’ll Miss The revolution;” a return to that 80’s Electro Pop motif with a funky guitar and minimalist keyboard stabs. The dopely-titled “Strange Nostalgia For The Future” could represent the entire album with its modern elements replicating a 30 years old sound. An analog piano and a somber digital bass pace this slow requiem for dance pop.

The tempo is brought back to danceable speed with “This Is All We’ve Got” and “Alisa.” The latter flaunts a simple guitar riff backed up by stronger, more complex riffs beneath the surface, complemented by rapid high-hat pacing and hard drums. The fellas aren’t too keen on that girl-as-friend shit, declaring, “Don’t think that I’m your shrink now, I don’t have much to say.”

The album isn’t all dance. “Hanging On To Every Heartbeat” is drenched in Hall & Oates sensibility, musically with its mid-tempo pacing and bass guitar. The song deals with Big Brother and its incessant intrusion into the lives of regular people. If you’re always watching us, then who are we? What kind of lives can we live when we’re always being watched? That’s a bit too deep for the dance floor.

Synth and Sirens bring back the boogie on“Corner of the Sky” along with distortion and thump. Cut Copy gives a subtle jab to corporate interests, noting, “you are the means, not the ends.” The album closes as it began with “Sun God.”

Cut Copy has the dance pop thing down to a science. What makes them interesting (when you can makeout the words) is their lyricism. While there are haze and trance elements intertwined, they are not asleep and as “Hanging on To Every Heartbeat” shows, they have content. Being able to couple that gives Zonoscope an edge over the boom and thump of mindless club music.

“Take Me Over” (Midnight Magic Remix) *Not On Album

Take_Me_Over-Midnight_Magic_Remix

out of 5

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