Posted by tonywonder in 2010 | 0 Comments
Cut Copy, a.k.a. Hut Choppy
Cut Copy – Hanging on to Every Heartbeat
Here is my official review of Cut Copy’s Zonoscope:
Screw Hot Chip.
Am I the only person who doesn’t like Hot Chip?
The only person who thinks that their vocals are wafty, insubstantial “WE ALL HAVE BRITISH ACCENTS” mediocrity?
Zonoscope sounds like Cut Copy is trying to be an indie-dance band, which is a weird move for a band that is at its best when it is submerged in cheesy, overtly catchy dance hooks and bumping 4×4 house tropes. Simply put, Cut Copy’s dance tracks are great and their more songwriterly-tracks are punchless and insipid.
There is not enough house cheese here. NOT ENOUGH HOUSE CHEESE!! Indie rock is rad and popular now, yahoo and hooray, but here is one of the negatives of this profligacy – a band that should not be doing indie things is clearly trying to do just that and is kind of failing, lazily copping Hot Chip and Yeasayer and LCD Soundsystem’s big grandiose melodies and Animal Collective’s sunnier side rather than doing what they do best (that is, mercilessly rubbing your face into house music’s durty durty flamboyant swag), and that sucks.
Zonoscope as a whole is alright, and maybe I am at fault for playing the what-if game with this album instead of taking it at face value (after all, “Hanging on to Every Heartbeat” is pretty boss, though only moderately dancey) – at fault for clearly wanting it to be something that it’s not intended to be.
But on the other hand, if you’re built like an offensive lineman, why would you spend an entire album trying to sing like a cornerback? It’s okay to admire your cornerback for what he does, but it’s another thing to try and duplicate his style of play – after all, you are not built like a free safety. You are 350+ pounds and angry as shit and built for pushing people around on the dancefloor. So push, then.
I can only guess that Hot Chip lies somewhere in this motivation. Listen to the track up top and meditate on what could’ve been. Death to Hot Chip, long live DJ Sneak, etc.
