Album Review: Cut Copy - Free Your Mind

Cut Copy
Free your Mind
Rating: Woof Daddy

Over the course of three albums, Aussie act Cut Copy have subtly been moving from more guitar-centric dance rock to full on electronic dance music, and never more so on their fourth record Free Your Mind, a trippy, sun-kissed love letter to the late 80s and early 90s summer of love in the UK. Drawing inspiration from Primal Scream's Screamadelica, acid house, and the whole Madchester scene (Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Charlatans), Cut Copy have come up with their most consistent and their most fun record. While many people will decry that Cut Copy have abandoned their New Order-hook galore sound for something more ephemeral, these tracks insinuate themselves within in you to where you can't get rid of them, and honestly, the whole record is a grower, with each listen revealing more and more going on behind the scenes.

Free Your Mind is structured like a warehouse party with highs and lows, taking you on a journey through an evening of partying, with whatever you are taking making the journey freer and more intense. Starting with the aptly titled "Intro," the record kicks off with trippy electronics and voices telling you to "free your mind," which leads into the title track and first single, which throbs and pulsates with a thick house groove, vocal stabs, and deep bass line before erupting into a frenzy of piano rolls and wailing diva vocals. It is the perfect opening to this record as it announces itself with purpose and direction.



"We Are Explorers" continues the trip with squiggly synth lines, bright emotive keyboards, and insistent beats, with singer Dan Whitford taking you on a "journey into the morning sun."



"Let Me Show You Love," takes things into hazier territory which much denser use of layers of keyboards and electronics, Whitford's voice taking on an even more Bobbie Gillespie-ian tone, masked and manipulated, as the druggy pulse of the track takes over with intense rave synth stabs.



While this build throughout the record could get monotonous, Cut Copy is seemingly aware of this fact, and place short, trippy segues throughout the record with odd film samples and swirly instrumentation, which serves to add some texture and variety to the constant forward motion. From the almost Pink Floyd-esque meanderings of "Into the Desert," it flows into the brilliant track "Footsteps," which starts out almost nonchalantly with a deep house vibe, rising washes of keyboards, twisted vocal samples, and throbbing bass line and somehow before you know it becomes a furious rave banger.

You are almost halfway through the record before any notion of a guitar comes into play. "In Memory Capsule" opens with some delicate acoustic strumming before becoming a lush, synth led earworm, which is perhaps one of the only traditionally structured pop songs on the record. It would be a crime if this was not a single.



But all notions of traditional songcraft go out the window on this record which consistently reminds you it is first and foremost a dance record. Even on more early-referencing Cut Copy tracks like "Dark Corners & Mountain Tops," what seems like a more guitar led mid-tempo ballad suddenly takes a turn at the end into ambient techno territory. The record rightens itself again with big club and festival track "Meet Me In The House Of Love," which is the centerpiece and boldest track on Free Your Mind, with its amazing build, taking you where your mind and feet want to go.

Free Your Mind ends the journey with "Take Me Higher," which spot on references Primal Scream's Screamadelica with its housy piano stabs and diva vocals,



and the swirly, Spiritualized-esque barn burner "Walking In The Sky," with its psychedelic guitars, gospel-like backing vocals, and tidal waves of analog synths. It si the perfect track to end the album, as it closes finally with the brief instrumental, "Mantra" which closes the record as it begins with swirly keyboards and sampled dialogue.

Free Your Mind is by far Cut Copy's most focused and well realized work. Here they stick to their plan with confidence rather than timidly testing the waters. It's as if someone told them they had to make a record with no guitars and they stuck to it. Free Your Mind is one of the best records of the year, and certainly one of the best dance/rock hybrids to come along in awhile.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.