Cut Copy - Free Your Mind

Melbourne quartet Cut Copy have been gently wooing the world with their fine craft of heartening, warm dance music for nearly a decade now. 2011's Zonoscope was one of the most warmly-received albums of the year, and found chunks of it wriggling their way into TV adverts and our collective subconscious.

This time around, though, the influence is a lot less electropop and a great deal more house. Almost everyone has picked up upon a Screamadelica feel to their fourth LP, but rather than cement itself as a firm gamechanger like Primal Scream did in the early 90s, Cut Copy are getting quite the lukewarm reception.

A largely unnecessary intro paves the way for the album's first fist-pumping moment, the brassy, in-your-face title track that unleashes Italo-house piano keys, Whitford's token laidback drawl and a generally classic-90s feel (the synths in the second verse remind me of Gala's era-defining Freed From Desire). They take a turn for the more generic though on 'We Are Explorers', a vocal melody so obvious that I felt myself singing along to it even the first time I listened. The background, too, is more straightforward and leaving not a terrible amount to get wrapped up in ourselves. It's like being told to dance rather than wanting to, and it's all the more confusing when followed by the instantly loveable 'Let Me Show You Love' and its clear future-pop leanings (think Kavinsky ushering in the apocalypse). Their usual keen ear for a funky bassline makes 'In Memory Capsule' another highlight, although isn't quite driven with the same sense of direction that made Where I'm Going that summer-of-2011-defining anthem.

The segues and interludes are little more than token gestures brushed on to give the LP the impression of cohesiveness, but some are just silly. '(Into the desert)', for example, is a brief series of space noises with a woman telling us that "on the horizon/ I see the future", whilst at the start of Let Me Show... there's an ominous announcement that "this information is crystallizing into your mind". Trippy, man. Wacky noises continue with jungle effects on 'Footsteps', which to me are more plodding than dancing, despite their best intentions to get us to "give [our] heartbreaks and feelings up". And then there's the jittering '(above the city)', assumedly supposed to give us the intention of psychedelia and drug-induced nirvana.

There're moments of true mediocrity, too: 'Footsteps' as mentioned above, and the shrugging 'Dark Corners & Mountain Tops' begins drearily before an instrumental outro gives it a much-needed adrenaline boost. Saxophones and bass are easy inclusions to get a bit of camp fun going, and they work well. The album's most convincing moments though are its boldest beats: 'Meet Me In a House of Love' could quite comfortably slot into one of those early 90s racing video games like Ridge Racer (to me, as a 7 year old, those games were my introduction to acid house). The screeching effects towards the end of 'Take Me Higher' as it lets a drum machine do the breakdown duties are another album highlight, whilst they do a nice Blur (Tender in particular) impression on the cute 'Walking in the Sky'.

I can totally understand why the record's proving divisive; it's probably quite the comedown after In Ghost Colours and Zonoscope. For me, though, it's a pretty charming album that - although a little too close to M83's Hurry Up, We're Dreaming concept with its grandly-titled interludes - is a fun listen and contains enough to keep me interested. It's a pretty fair statement to say that it dips a little around the middle, though.

Rating: 7.5/10
Highlights: Walking in the Sky; Free Your Mind; Take Me Higher; In Memory Capsule; Let Me Show You Love
Avoid: Mantra; We Are Explorers

Artwork Watch: Probably the shittest excuse for album artwork I've seen in a long time. After Zonoscope's as well. :(
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