By Cut Copy, 2008

Cut copy are set to return in 2008 with the shimmering timelessness of 'in ghost colours'. Haunted with machines of the past and sounds of the future, 'in ghost colours' inhabits the kind of space in time where trends are irrelevant and music is about feeling rather than following and 1969 is just as relevant as 2020. At once both jacking and jangly, electronic and organic, cut copy have crafted a record filled with glorious sounds and moods but also unabashedly pop song structures and hooks and melodies for eons. The progression from 'bright like neon love' to 'in ghost colours' is brazenly apparent from opening track 'feel the love', an acoustic guitar led stomp of a space rock tune, instantly unforgettable and with recognizable cut copy sheen. Where 'bright like neon love' was charmingly vague and hazy, 'in ghost colours' is to the point and efficient in it's songcraft, with vocals much more apparent and whitford's imprint all over every track. The record is sewn together with passages of woozy dreamscapes between the straight out jams.Far more fun than the eighties actually were at the time, the second album from Melbourne’s Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours, is one of the slickest and most varied reinterpretations of the era to appear in the last five years. Selective nostalgia means that every sound from the past is open to reappraisal and Cut Copy have moved on from the sometimes slavish devotion to New Order that dominated their first album, 2004’s enjoyably familiar Bright Like Neon Love. By comparison In Ghost Colours is nearer to the dense pop of Electronic, Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner’s often overlooked collaboration, especially the brash, acoustic guitar driven opener "Feel The Love" and the brash "Lights and Music". But on tunes like the lush "Hearts On Fire" and the more abrasive "So Haunted", Dan Whitford and crew also nod to the experimental pop of the Cure and Depeche Mode and the now familiar sonic attack that My Bloody Valentine originated (and Snow Patrol eventually turned into pop). Less obviously, late period ELO, increasingly adored by studio heads, prove to be an influence. The producer here is none other than DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy, and though Cut Copy are far from the bittersweet hedonism of his other recent clients Hercules And Love Affair, In Ghost Colours works both as contemporary dance-rock and, edited without gaps, as a complete album.--Steve Jelbert

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