Writing about music for the internet often means reacting to a seemingly endless string of hype cycles from both established and new acts, each vying for our attention and respect. Records are either billed as the next big thing or exceedingly important to the future of music and we cover them heavily, expending much in the way of verbiage and seeking out new mounts to proselytize from. What often gets lost are those groups that seem consistently solid, never breaking any new ground or suddenly appearing on the scene to upend everything but who take existing formulas and produce great records that rarely leave our stereos in between all of those most check out material. Cut Copy is definitely one of these solid bands, consistently turning out memorable electro pop albums over the last 5 years. Their latest, Free Your Mind, might be my favorite yet and it is one of the most consistent and fun records to come out in 2013.
Cut Copy have a strange knack for releasing an album at the precise time I begin to wonder what they have been up to lately. Releasing a series of singles over the last few months, the announcement of a full follow up to Zonoscope still seemed to come out of the blue. Their 4th studio album represents a coming together of elements from their last two albums, mixing In Ghost Color's new wave with Zonoscope's strident and more rhythmic moments.
The record contains many of the elements that have come to define Cut Copy over the last 5 years, a mixing of sparse, sample focused, ambient intros and outros introducing a string of single ready electro pop. In line with many of the electronic records released over the last two years, the reference point is early to mid 90s' house music, with driving beats and ecstatic climaxes. The whole thing feels like one large party and the record never lets up on the good vibes for a single moment. While this is great, it would have been nice to hear a more wistful song or two as Cut Copy has often proven themselves to be equally strong in that regard. Still, the party must go on. This is music for that moment in the night when everything crests, before the night's failures become apparent, when anything seems possible.
At times, it feels like Cut Copy is channeling Primal Scream's legendary Screamadelica and moments on tracks like "Free Your Mind," "Let Me Show You Love," and "Take Me Higher," seem to draw substantially from this record, possibly, as was suggested to me, directly sampling it. The reference point is to its more party friendly moments (quietly underscoring just how much fertile territory Screamadelica contained, itself a record that never seems to get its full due in my mind), distilling those moments into a larger piece. The harkening back works in this regard and amplifies the endless rave atmosphere that pervades Free Your Mind. Meanwhile, tracks like "We Are Explorers" and "In Memory Capsule" could easily find themselves on their older records, especially In Ghost Colors. The overall effect is one of pulling together the various developments of the last two albums into a consistent statement.
Free Your Mind does not represent a bold step forward for the group; however, it also does not represent a step backward or even a signal of going stale. Instead, Cut Copy refined their sound down to what works and have cast out some of the more boring parts that plagued Zonoscope. The final record is one of this year's most solid collection of songs, certainly some of the most fun.
Grade: A
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