Album review: Cut Copy, 'Zonoscope'
2.5 stars (out of 4)
Throughout his decade-long career, Cut Copy founder Dan Whitford has balanced DJ sets and live-band performances. The Australian musician integrates those impulses with increasing skill on each of Cut Copy’s three studio albums. The latest, “Zonoscope” (Modular), works roughly the same terrain as Phoenix and LCD Soundsystem – a pastiche of rock and electronic music, with overt references to ‘70s and ‘80s source material.
Whitford is an unabashed pop disciple – he loves a strong melody, and nonstop breeziness defines “Zonoscope” as a summer album. That impulse is further enhanced by a pronounced Caribbean vibe, with tropical percussion (steel drums, cowbells, claves) married with sunny synthesizers and bounding disco bass lines. Whitford sings with an androgynous sense of wonder. He pushes his voice higher, basking in a melody’s sweetness, “hanging on to every heart beat” as one song implores. The more beat-oriented tracks later in the album, notably the 15-minute “Sun God,” don’t work as well in this context. When “Zonoscope” sticks to concise songcraft, it’s a satisfying, if sometimes trifling, pleasure.
greg@gregkot.com