Cut Copy In Ghost Colours by: Ed Butler Tue:01-Apr-08 Label: Modular Year: 2008 WB rating 78 out of 100

For some, the eighties never died. They went underground. They were cryogenically frozen. They’re still alive, dammit! And these octophiles have grown in number, multiplying like saturated Gremlins, or have come out of hiding, spiky haired, stovepipe-legged bears emerging into the springtime sun. From the new, new-wave revival that swept the UK so recently to the dance-rock of Daft Punk, Justice and The Presets, music industry faddishness is alive and well across the planet. And right now, if your average music writer can’t start tossing round names like New Order, Kraftwerk Saint Etienne and Human League, then said writer’s subject is decidedly uncool.

So, Melbourne electroclash trio Cut Copy enter the fray with In Ghost Colours, their second long-playing release, channeling New Order, Kraftwerk, Saint Etienne and Human League. But mainly New Order. It sounds as though Cut Copy took a dozen little pieces of ‘Blue Monday’ and grew In Ghost Colours in a lab. Of course, such an esteemed musical pedigree is a nice place to start, and Cut Copy make a good fist of pushing through the barriers of ‘80s synth and shoddy lyrics.

Coming off the rapturous critical reception that welcomed 2004’s Bright Like Neon Love, Dan Whitford and his cohorts Tim Hoey and Mitchell Scott were always faced with a considerable challenge, as all feted debut artists are when presenting a sophomore offering. And, thankfully, despite the immense amounts of vitriol that could potentially be heaped on yet another bunch of retro-pop revivalists fronted by a Bernard Sumner soundalike, Cut Copy’s talent for solid pop song construction carries In Ghost Colours to a plane above the usual dross polluting the airwaves.

Because make no mistake, there will be plenty of people anxious to savage this new release, as any successful exemplar of a current fad is prone to cop some backlash. But the bells chiming during the gentle, simple outro to ‘So Haunted’ alone should be enough to dispel claims of incompetence. Because not only is In Ghost Colours a solidly constructed piece of pop music clad in fluorescent t-shirts and happy pants, but Cut Copy have an uncanny talent for unearthing hooks in the most unlikely places. On ‘Far Away’, one of the more distressingly bland electro-pop numbers on the album, Whitford’s falsetto “doo-doo’s” are unmistakably catchy.

The whole album, however, is never quite dance, never quite pop, and never quite rock, but an interesting mélange of all three – never more so than on ‘Hearts on Fire’, which sounds for all the world like a Human League song which today would be lauded as the forerunner of the house music scene. That Cut Copy could create a song that sounds like an old song looking forwards, as opposed to a new song desperately craning its neck backwards, is at the heart of In Ghost Colours’ appeal. With thumping electronic bass drums, sampled yelps and screams and rave-like whistles meshed with dated-sounding synths and, believe it or not, saxophone backing, ‘Hearts on Fire’ is everything right about retro-pop, and deserves to be a staple of shithouse clubs the world over. That is, believe it or not, a glowing compliment.

It’s not all smooth sailing and favourable Cocteau Twins comparisons, however. In Ghost Colours is by no means perfect. At 15 songs, it’s about 20 minutes too long, and some tracks, such as the wispy dancefloor number ‘Strangers in the Wind’, are all build-up and no climax, a chocolate box full of nothing but Turkish Delight. Album closer ‘Eternity One Night Only’, which is a collection of electronically windy effects knitted together into a sparse musicality, opens as potentially the most exciting number on the album, but a collection of electronically windy effects knitted together into a sparse musicality it remains as the album fades to black.

But when the real instruments come to the fore, things are all as they should be again. Opening track ‘Feel the Love’, while certainly not immune from primitive Daft Punk-ish electronic flights of fancy, is determinedly catchy, while ‘Unforgettable Season’s rhythm section is positively joyous, taking Whitford’s uplifting vocals up a notch. But by and large, the digital/analogue crossover of Bright Like Neon Love is dispensed with for a true retro pop experience.

A common complaint about poorly thought-out albums is that good ideas are not followed through to their potentially excellent denouement. While there is no doubt there are a few tracks here that could have done with a bit more fleshing out, at the very least In Ghost Colours has no shortage of great ideas, and more often than not they go somewhere genuinely exciting. While it could be easy to discount Cut Copy’s new effort as another piece of rehashed revisionism (a cut and copy job, if you will), that would be to sell it short. While the window dressing is looking a little tatty and worn, the product itself is a shining piece of pop art.