Cut Copy In Ghost Colours

• Words: Anna Balkrishna
• Label: Modular
• XLR8R Rating: /10

Back when nu-rave was new, Cut Copy got blog-famous on the strength of a housey FabricLive mix and a full-length with “neon” in the title. But their sophomore offering, In Ghost Colours, reminds us that Cut Copy has a rock band side in there somewhere, too–DayGlo shellac or no. This time around, DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy sprinkles his magic disco dust onto Cut Copy’s glittering ‘80s synth-pop, massaging those beefy basslines and Modern English keyboards into something more human than before. Working around Dan Whitford’s trilling, edgeless vocals, Cut Copy plumbs some new emotional depths, as seen in the lovely, sliding, Fleetwood Mac-esque guitar behind “Strangers in the Wind,” or the sawed-off discord of “So Haunted.” The party’s still going strong, but they now know better than to say it’ll last forever–and that makes it all the better.