It’s been a long time coming, but February the 8th will finally see the release of Cut Copy‘s third album ‘Zonoscope’.  The buzz has been building for a while and we at Wonky have been lucky enough to preview the record in it’s entirety.  And what’s it like? Well, a little hit and miss.

First single ‘Take Me Over’ isn’t that much of a winner for us – it’s not bad per se, but borrows far too heavily from Men At Work‘s ‘Land Down Under’ and to us seems to plod along a little aimlessly.  ‘Blink And You’ll Miss A Revolution’ and ‘Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat’ are similarly underwhelming.  But it’s not all bad news.

Album opener ‘Need You Now’ unites nu-disco, cascading synths and Beach Boys-esque harmonies in a glorious manner.  The song also remains rather restrained for the first four minutes, before layering everything on big time for the final two – a musical technique we very much enjoy.  Tougher house flavours comes through on a few tracks which is a sound that really suits the band; ‘Pharaohs & Pyramids’ and ‘Corner Of The Sky’ are both excellent examples of this, the latter being one of the strongest on the album.

‘This is All We’ve Got’ and ‘Ailsa’ both strip down the electronics and let Cut Copy’s songwriting shine through.  This illustrates how excellent they are at creating hooks and melodies and that perhaps instead of delving further into dance on this record, the band might have done well to embrace the sunny pop that fills these two songs.  The album closes with the 15 minute ‘Sun God’ which can be described as nothing less than a disco odyssey.  We can definitely see their vision, but unfortunately it sounds to us like an LCD Soundsytem B-side and just leaves us wondering ‘Did it really have to be so bloody long?!’.

So a mixed bag then, but proof that when Cut Copy do get it right they really are an extremely talented bunch indeed. 3/5.

Cut Copy – Need You Now

Cut Copy – This Is All We’ve Got

Cut Copy – Corner Of The Sky