Customer Reviews

In Ghost Colours

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Bright Like Neon Love came out 4 years ago and was an excellent debut album from this Aussie electro indie band. I liked it a lot, but couldn't helped thinking when listening to it, that it was on the cusp of something grand, where maybe not even the band realized how close they were to pushing up and over that edge. Album co-producer and LCD Soundsystem member Tim Goldsworthy may have been just the extra touch they needed to push this exciting band to the upper realms of electronic indie land.

The songs really tighten up and there are a lot more lyrics and vocal tracks than their debut LP. It also clocks in at over 50 minutes, while Bright Like Neon Love was under 43 minutes. Gone are some of the elongated electro instrumentation with a few strips of interlaced vocals found on Bright Like Neon Love. These songs are much more pop aligned, and judging by the strength of some of them, enough to extend their listening audience to an even broader range.

There's a treasure trove of catchy tunes, including the opener, Feel The Love, the progressive rocker So Haunted, and the unexpected leftfield turn when the chorus kicks in during Lights and Music. 80's backing electronica is again the theme, especially on Far Away, where you could have placed it onto any new wave, synth-pop album between 1984 and 1987 and no one would have even noticed. The dreamy interludes are a nice touch, as they glide and connect us through 15 tracks without a bad hitch at any of the stops along the way.

Harmonious from top to bottom and very well produced, this 2nd album is one of the best examples of how talented, non-mainstream, electronic artists can really be. I wish the band much success, and let this highly recommended album do the rest.

It seems like most other reviewers are applauding this album for having more lyrics, stronger pop sensibilities, and for sounding more like New Order in their heyday. I'm going to buck the trend just a bit to say that you might be put off a little bit if you were hoping for a more faithful follow-up from Cut Copy's debut album.

Yes, lyrics and vocals on "Bright Like Neon Love" - the debut - were sparse and repetitive. In that way, the debut album was similar to some of Daft Punk's work. I loved the debut album for its grooves, sounds, and the feelings it evoked. Lyrics and vocals were not the selling point, for me.

While there is some carry-over in format as far as groove and instrumentation from the debut to "In Ghost Colours," the songs on this latest release conform more to a verse-chorus-verse structure. And although the amount of vocals and lyrics have been doubled, I wouldn't necessarily say that they've doubled in profundity or quality.

So what are we left with? "In Ghost Colours" is an enjoyable album that should still hold a strong appeal for fans of artists such as Daft Punk, Cassius, and Datarock. At the same time, Cut Copy has definitely moved further into classic New Wave territory.

Evolution refers to a change over time. Some people confuse that with progression, or improvement. In this case, I can't really say that I think Cut Copy has improved, but they have changed. The quality of "In Ghost Colours" rivals and in some ways surpasses "Bright Like Neon Love." However, comparing the two is - to use a cliche - a bit like comparing apples and oranges. They're different, but hey, they're both fruit.

In conclusion, I'm giving this album 4 stars out of 5 because I personally and subjectively found the shift in format to be a little off-putting. I will have to look to other artists for music that is in the same vein to Cut Copy's debut release, "Bright Like Neon Love." On the other hand, my wife and I are enjoying this album and I expect that it will grow on me more. Pound-for-pound, the cuts on this album are probably technically better "songs" than the tracks from the debut. So please don't let my words discourage you from picking up either this or the original. I could say more positive things about "In Ghost Colours" but I feel other reviewers have done well enough at that.

Track 1 `Feel the Love' starts off mid beat, a feature which foreshadows this indie-pop trios avante-guard style. This kick start allows them to develop the wispy and synthetic sound effects so that by 60 seconds into "In Ghost Colours" you're already in the middle of a pop song. If you like the faraway, deep but nasally sounding vocals of Peter Bjorn & John, then you'll enjoy the style of Dan Whitford on this album.

If I had been a consumer of more 80's music, I could probably drop a lot of references, but alas, I thought most of it was crap when I was listening to grunge and industrial rock. However if you are a fan of that era, this album is definitely for you, and by the end of the second track, you'll forget this is a new album. Because where `Feel the Love' starts off feeling 80's wannabe, by `Lights and Music' it's 100% 80's - samples, electro bass-funk, winding keyboards, and all! Robotic vocals atop synth keys really do create that 80's environment. If I didn't know better, I'd swear they somehow slipped in the soundtrack to the arcade version of Ninja Gaiden. Somehow they pull it off with a modern feel though, because it's catchy, not annoying and cliché. At times sounding a bit like PB&J, and others like Robert Smith meets Julian Casablancas, they span the genre fairly well with this accessible release.

They seem to use the short tracks `We Fight For Diamonds' and `Voice in Quartz' as ambient interludes. Transitioning styles between the indie-pop feel and the 80's flashback.

Many folks reference Daft Punk when talking about this band, but that's a mistake. The heavy handed hardcore electronic beats Daft Punk is known for are substituted here with pop-riffs and soft-tronica. Again, an underground 80's reference would be handy here, please refer to paragraph 2.

Standout tracks are `Lights and Music' for it's authentic 80's happy groove and 'Strangers In The Wind' for it's uniqueness, busting out the Moody Blues' slide guitar. If you want to cut to the chase and see what you're in for with this album, listen to the first 20 seconds of `Far Away' it's a microcosm of the aftertaste given to us by Cut Copy.

I'm rating this 3.5 stars, but giving it the benefit of the doubt!

-thanks for reading!-

I bought this CD pretty much like I buy every CD I get: I listen briefly to the first three tracks and if I like it I take it with me.

Once I got home I put In Ghost Colours in my player and gave it a listen while I was cooking.

You know a CD is good when you stop what you're doing to really pay attention to the awesomeness that's coming out of the speakers. I listened to it a few more times and there's only one thing I must say: Listen to it. It's like finding a 20$ in your coat you had forgotten about or finding you still know how to skate. It sounds familiar yet brand new.

It totally made my day, so give it a listen too. Chances are you'll love it.

Cut Copy's latest album, IN GHOST COLOURS, literally seemed to jump out and grab me. I downloaded "Feel The Love" to get a taste for their music since I'd never heard of them before and instantly feel in love (no pun intended) with the infectious, good vibing synth hooks. I took an immediate liking to the more electro dance-pop songs "Out There On The Ice", "Lights & Music", "Hearts On Fire", "Far Away", and the more emotional sounding "Strangers In The Wind", but am still not able to get as into their songs that have more of an 80's new wave feel to them. I think their foray into electronica suits them far better, clashing together a hypnotic blend of Erasure and Royksopp that I can't seem to get enough of.

I may only listen to about half of this album but the songs I do like I really LOVE, and you can't beat this price.

I'm sure glad I discovered Cut Copy's music.

I am glad and not at all surprised that this band from Australia took such a risk and made an album that sounds so much like 80's New Order, ELO (the first song), or most British synth pop bands of the era. If they had been British this would have never happened as they have already done this and moved on to something else... more and worse disposable pop that fortunately is so bubble gum it never makes it to the UNited States, not even on college radio. The last band that actually tried and succeeded at making a bubble gum album was Aqua in the mid 90's. And even they after they made their money, they moved on. Canadians are a cross between US rock and British pop, but tend to be a watered down version of both, with limited success, however notable. The Irish take themselves too seriously to be danceable. And Americans are too manly and clumsy to attempt this. Not insignificantly due to the fact that they would both fail and be laughed at for years on late night TV. Not even Justin Bieber gets some respect, even after his success in the business, sold out concerts and banging a Disney channel chick. Only an Australian band could be capable of making this type of album and succeeding without tripping on stage.

Because I live in a city and neighborhood (Capitol Hill in Seattle) where there is a lot of opportunity to be baffled by what hipsters listen to, I'm surprised and thrilled to find out Cut Copy has such a big audience. Why so surprising? If Cut Copy had been called, say, Missing Persons and released In Ghost Colours in 1987, probably their fan base wouldn't have been as large. Released now, though, In Ghost Colours is an astonishingly good album of 80s synth dance songs that somehow managed to be considered a sort of alternative rock record with a skinny-jeans following. Once you get over that amusement and deal with the music itself, I actually think In Ghost Colours manages to be a groundbreaking album even amongst dance records. Starting what seems like mid beat in "Feel The Love," the band croons "All the clouds have silver linings," and you coo along with them. From there, the music literally doesn't stop, often with 1-2 minute bridges stitching together the record's most aggressive songs. The result is full of wild dance beats and a lot of heart amongst its terrific songs. It took me just one listen of "Lights & Music" with my friends at a party to fall in love with what they do, but one of the thrills of the record is the way other songs radiate the same charm and excitement on further listens. "Nobody Lost, Nobody Found" is spiky and thrilling, "Strangers In The Wind" sweet and dance-y at once, "Far Away" the best song you never heard in the 80s. If this is the future (past?) of alternative rock nowadays, I'll dance along anytime.

The indie scene's love affair with dance music has always been an iffy proposition - from the two-step shuffle commonly associated with scenesters at concerts to the fairly awkward relationship many fans have with "cool" (read: hip, Pitchfork-approved, etc.) dance-rock, it's always been difficult to correspond "indie" to "dance" or vice versa. With the recent upswing in dance-oriented groups and accompanying critically-acclaimed albums like Hot Chip, Justice, and LCD Soundsystem, it's become okay, nay, necessary for fans formerly just fine with a four-piece rock band to kick out the DJ sets and neon shirts and actually move those Doc Martens.

The resulting over-saturation of electro-pop, techno-lite music has become impossible to ignore and even harder to tolerate, and so it's refreshing to hear a record like Australian group Cut Copy's sophomore effort In Ghost Colours, an album so unabashedly fun and free of postmodern irony that it's an almost unreasonably good time. A heady blend of `80s-tinged synth pop, whirling atmospheric electronica, and frothy, carefree pop, it's music that holds itself above no one and caters to everyone. And as you can guess, it's pretty damn catchy too.

It's all there on opener "Feel The Love," where a squelching burst of keyboards attached to a robust drum beat feeds into a guitar strumming along in major-key bliss while synths soar overhead, the bass pumps out a slinky disco groove and vocalist Dan Whitford's unassuming tenor holds it all together. Sounds like a lot? It is, and it's true of In Ghost Colours in general. The record is a massive pastiche of musical styles, a neon-bright watercolor of `80s new wave, rave-ready dance, and sunny pop melodies that keep everything nicely packed together into four-minute slices of old and new.

Producer Tim Goldworthy of DFA deserves much of the credit. He works seemingly effortless magic here, from the moody house jam of "Lights and Music" to the psychedelic space rock of "So Haunted" to the trippy, slow-jam mega-hit (in Australia, at least) "Hearts On Fire," infusing the band's disparate styles into a vigorous whole. Acoustic guitar and studio drums mesh unobtrusively with synthesizers and all manner of stereo effects, a gleaming array of instruments that rise and fall with Whitford's vocals but never overwhelm or clash. The sequencing is particularly well thought-out, separating many of the full tracks with one-minute mood pieces that enhance rather than detract from the record's flow and make fifteen tracks enjoyable rather than painfully long.

Perhaps the album's strongest point is its ability to take and borrow from dozens of influences, yet never come off as overly derivative or mere hacks, as so many of their scene peers have. "Far Away" is a sinfully catchy new wave piece that sounds like it was pulled out of a time machine from 1985, yet the splashes of live drumming, Whitford's not-too-little, not-too-much vocals and clattering synth breakdown are entirely `00s. "So Haunted" calls to mind a more optimistic Interpol, one with a penchant for suddenly uprooting their droning guitar for a brighter, keyboard-friendly chorus.

Even better, In Ghost Colours is full of genuine songs - forget dance-rock bands that catapult onto the scene with one smash hit and an album of filler. The sexy guitar pulse and spiraling chorus of "Nobody Lost, Nobody Found;" the out-of-left-field country-rock gem "Strangers In The Wind;" the cheerfully anthemic "Unforgettable Season;" this is a record that leaves a lasting impression and an overwhelming desire to go through it again, as a whole.

It's rare to find a collection of songs like In Ghost Colours, particularly in a genre and era where it's practically impossible to find something that hasn't been done before. Cut Copy are not revolutionaries of the dance-rock world, and the last thing In Ghost Colours has done is create something new and wholly original. Rather, it's an eclectic effort that is an excellent example of painstakingly refined craftsmanship; a purely pop album meticulously put together for maximum summer enjoyment, yet one that loses nothing in immediacy or creativity. A vibrant amalgam that will no doubt prove as timeless as pop music itself, it not only makes it okay to dance, it makes it f***ing righteous.

Having lived through the 60's, listening to this CD makes me a big nostalgic. In some places, the vocals are reminiscent of 60's groups like Peter & Gordon. At other times, it's the 80's with Ultravox or Visage. The instrumentation however, is completely contemporary, dance rock with heavy synth influences. I bought this CD after I heard the track "Feel the Love" used on a TV phone commercial. Thankfully, the rest of the CD is just as good (or better). I'm looking forward to more from these up and coming artists.

I was at a friend's place a few weeks ago and the TV was tuned to a dance music channel when this crackling Dance number came on. I took note of the song title, "Hearts on fire" as well as the act, Cut Copy.

Cut Copy are an Australian trio and they sound very much like the groups that took up residence in the British top 20 singles charts in the eighties; Human League, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran et all. "In ghost colours" is apparently their sophomore album. I half expected it to be filled with dance numbers but the album is split between Dance songs and dreamy Synth Pop.

"Out there on the ice", the deliriously catchy "Lights and music" (with swirling synths, ghostly harmonies and a guitar break; Madonna would kill for this song), "Far away", and "Nobody lost, nobody found" fall into the dance category. There a few psychedelic sounding instrumental interludes; "We fight for diamonds", "Voices in quartz", "Silver thoughts", and "Visions".

"Feel the love" is a sunny sixties sounding Pop song with lovely harmonies. Still upbeat are "Unforgettable season", and the shimmery rocker "So haunted" (one of my favourites). The rest are ballads; "Midnight runner" (with disembodied harmonies sounding like The Fleet Foxes), the gently stomping "Strangers in the wind" and the gentle floaty "Eternity one night only".

I must say, this album far exceeded my expectations. One of my favourite Dance/Pop albums of 2008.