cut {beach boys} copy[sic]. Akai + The Beatles * New Order = ?
Cut Copy has only recently become one of those bands I have to hear all the time. Though I knew their tracks in a casual sense, I also had multiple remixes and easily had an opinion about them prior to owning any of their full releases. However, a lovely woman, Amy (thank you Amy!), kindly provided me with their last two records, which I have perused quite fervently. And the conclusion, though I imagine you are not surprised, is quite positive. These gents make good hooks seem as easy as New Order did in the 80’s and 90’s. Cut Copy embody that same bold experimentalism that the boys from Manchester managed, changing the scope and breadth of instrumentation and sound that was occurring in the Post Punk and New Wave scenes at the time. This new record is at times, more electronic than anything they’ve ever done. But with all the electronic elements used, I can not get away from the fact that this sounds like a record that came out of the sixties. It sounds like classic pop, where the youth movement had just only found voices and was developing a culture. There are echoes of the Mamas and the Papas and the Beach Boys are influencing the record loudly. Now, whether the Cut Copy we know is still there, the beautiful, smooth, riffy guitar work and lots of smooth, gentle transitions between songs, well I’ll get to that.
This sounds like a record oddly out of time, like I’m hearing a vinyl rip. There are moments that, again, hark back to Pet Sounds from Beach Boys, especially “Where I’m Going” which has the classic harmonies, the shimmy in the drum beat and lots of swaying vocals. Really it sounds like Surf City UK… or something like that. This song is a beach record; it should be on an 8-track or a 7” playing through a Woody, it feels locked in that beautiful late 60’s sound. Then of course, we have lots of techy sounds and brilliant loop work running throughout all of the songs. But the synth sounds remind me of New Order, circa “Power, Corruption and Lies”. Stout synths hits, brilliantly hokey preset keyboards and even some very very Peter Hook-ish bass work chiming away through the stereo space. Then of course, there are these very beatlesque song structures, though much longer and more developed than the young Beatles would have bothered with.
One could also say that the post punk influence, of spacious tracks, with an open, wide feeling is very clear here; all the sounds have room to breath and aren’t all squished together to make room. One might ask then… If all of these classic, giant voices of music are all compounded together, compressed tightly with synths and some very catchy lyrics, is this a good thing? Are all of these influences just too much to be appreciated?
The guitars and backbeat sound like they’re classics, gorgeous in their vintage qualities, just pushed through stereo instead of mono. The synthesis sounds are also beautifully classic, stiff and abrupt, spread out with cheap phasers and chorus stomp boxes. The production feels intentionally lo-fi on the surface; the synths come in and disappear as lightning appears bright and vulgar and then ceases to exist. Frankly this record leaves me slightly confused, unsure whether I adore it or it’s just too heady to be enjoyed, it must only be thought about.
I go back to their older records, Lights and Music especially, and wonder, what’s missing in Zonoscope? This record is so chockabock full of theme and melody, but then, that might be the problem, it just doesn’t feel fun. Zonoscope is missing that careless, cavalier element that was so beautiful and appreciable in the first two records. Occasionally those themes come through in this new effort, especially in the first track, “Need You Now”. But then, upon track 3 turning over, I’m left wondering which band am I listening to and what are they trying to say? In the last two records, that question didn’t matter, really all you had to do was simply listen. Here there’s depth that feels out of place, foreign, frankly weird. I don’t mean to say Cut Copy were shallow in their past outings, I mean this record feels false somehow; like they’re trying much much too hard to be profound, when all they ever had to do, was just play and I’d have loved them for it.
As said in the previous article, with regard to Brian Eno: specifically the idea of serendipity over forethought, this album seems to lack that. It does seem to have a great deal of forethought, a great deal of practice, instead of theory. This isn’t to say that the songs are bad, it’s just that they don’t glow like the rest of cut copy songs do. They don’t feel exactly like Cut Copy, the record feels like another band. Not a bad band keep in mind, but I want my Cut Copy. I miss their new record already, the one that was full of promise, that was full of everything that we love about that band. The one that never came.
They’re still one of the best bands in the world right now, unarguably. They are still the darlings of Indie Dance and rightly so. But the fact remains that this record, this record, doesn’t do what the other two have done. Maybe it’s them growing, maybe it’s their experimental record, even though all of their records have been bursting at the seems with experimentalism. I’m not sure what to say, other than I miss the old cut copy. And this is always the problem, should a band keep reproducing, ad nauseum and never change, never grow? Should they take a chance and possibly fail? I must commend them for this risk and this change from what that have done in the past.
I do however, mourn the cost.
keep listening.
_backchat.
