When I first listened to Melbourne, Australia’s Cut Copy, I was interested but not that impressed. I mean, I didn’t trash Bright Like Neon Love, but it didn’t exactly make me glow either, nor did I write a glowing review for XLR8S (click this for the whole article: xlr8r-electropop1.jpg). Part of a larger review of new electro-pop records of 04, you’ll see my initial reaction was a little on the dismissive side, though in hindsight, that album held up much better than the debut by Robots In Disguise:
                
                                                                               
One night last month my girlfriend and I were driving back to LA from Santa Barbara and she turned the proverbial dial over to KCRW and I was thrilled with what was on. It seemed like a track off of TIME, a later ELO record that had become OUR record - the one we would always drive home to.

Our other favorite was E=MC2 by Giorgio Moroder, and here was a song that seemed to combine the best of both mustachiod worlds (stay tuned for a GIORGIO MORODER VERSES JEFF LYNNE POST! Or, “The Battle of the Mustaches!”); the soft melody that can only be achieved by a man who would become a Traveling Wilbury (but he was Roy Orbison meets George Harrison, years before) and the percolating synthopation from man who invented electro-pop by making bubblegum for the dancefloor, together they had one thing in common - another voice popularly known as the vocoder. They also both made records at Musicland Studios in Munich, oh, and they were both on the Electric Dreams soundtrack.
       
I had a hunch it was the new Cut Copy, and this time, I was, sort-of, blown-away with what what I was hearing. The DJ man got back on the air and confirmed, but he also read a bit from a press release where the bands main-man, Dan Whitford, name-dropped Time. We were so excited! A new album that sounds like Time? But it’s more than that. Sure, the French-touch was still present, but along with the music of the mustache-mafia, Dan Whitford also looks to the darker side of electro-pop’s past with the more melancholy,yet still danceable themes of Depeche Mode and New Order. Come to think of it, there is also an old-school New York clubbyness, almost a Danceteria vibe to it. Perhaps some of that comes through the co-production of DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy, but Whitford, a DJ as well, is no stranger to pleasing a sweaty club.

Now Cut Copy roll into town to play the the Echoplex with Classixx and DJ Paul V.
And for those of you (like me, who didn’t go this year) that missed them at Coachella, here’s a little Youtube action.