I can't remember what my wife told me yesterday but I remember the clothes she had on and the fact that even though she didn't spend much time on it, her long brown hair looked bouncy, curly and gorgeous.
Some conversations stick with me, though. In 2008, while discussing the music of New Order with a friend*, I heard of this band for the first time. After that engaging conversation, I hopped on my bike and pedaled all the way home scurried home and looked Cut Copy up. Turns out their sophomore album had just been released a couple months earlier. Within a week, I had a copy of that album (In Ghost Colours) as well as their 2004 debut album, Bright Like Neon Love.
I dropped the needle on listened via laser to In Ghost Colours (above) first, as it was the album that had been discussed in the conversation. The first track is "Feel The Love", featured at the top of this post. I was hooked and listened to the album non-stop twice that night. It was as if I had stumbled across an album from the Eighties I had never heard before and I've been recommending it to everyone since then. My favorite part of the album is actually the trio of tunes at the beginning: "Feel The Love" smoothly segues into "Out There On The Ice" before giving way to "Lights & Music".
In retrospect, the Australian group's first album from 2004 sounds somewhat primitive, even by early Eighties standards and that is a compliment. Bright Like Neon Love features electro keyboards and thrashing guitars in a futuristic yet retro hybrid. The sound has been compared to the primordial efforts of Human League, Daft Punk and New Order. I like it - just not as much as I like the second album. The standout track for me is the funky "Future".
Even in the modern world of leaks and streaming previews, where the everywhere-all-at-once hype and über-ubiquitous marketing blitz dooms many albums, the 2011 release of Zonoscope was a complete and utter surprise to this guy. (Maybe the boys in Cut Copy tweeted it or posted it on the Facebook - how would I know?) It sounded (and still sounds) so good to my ears, which had been weaned on a steady diet of their second album for the past three years. "Take Me Over" and "Blink And You'll Miss A Revolution" are my favorites from this one.
The "Intro" to the colorful yet bland covered 2013 album Free Your Mind is an electronic manipulation of the album's title which becomes clearer as the track's twenty seconds nears an end. Then the throbbing, Technique-era bass kicks in and the title track is off and running. It's more of the same future-retro sound as on the previous two albums featuring danceable beats, overwhelmingly positive lyrics and more Eighties influences than should be legally allowed. My picks after dozens of listens include "We Are Explorers", "Meet Me In A House Of Love" and "Walking In The Sky".
*Try as I might, while mentally strolling through my dilapidated memory palace, I cannot recall which friend he first discussed Cut Copy with. If it was you, please let me know.
No comments:
Post a Comment