Cut Copy Fails to Break "Free"

The titular track off Cut Copy’s “Free Your Mind” opens with a lilting electronic beat and an odd voice urging the listener to “free your mind.” The song quickly takes off into a wild and psychedelic high of energy, techno hooks, and vocals reminiscent of ’80s pop music—a high that the album never manages to come down from.

After surfacing in 2004 with its debut album “Bright Like Neon Love,” the Australian band Cut Copy established itself as a popular indie electronic group. “Free Your Mind” is the band’s much-anticipated fourth album, following the Grammy-nominated hit “Zonoscope.”

This latest album is a complete departure from Cut Copy’s previous releases, enough so that it is difficult to discern whether it is a breath of fresh air or an overdone, hyperactive mess of electronic pop—with the scales tipping to the latter. In “Free Your Mind,” Cut Copy fail to live up to its hype as a leading electronic rock band, offering up a sound too generic to be separated from the latest Daft Punk hit or house music beat now frequented on the radio.

“We Are Explorers” is the album’s early standout track, but its upbeat and energetic vibe is unable to make up for the mediocrity of the tracks that follow it. A quirky beat from a tambourine in the background interacts oddly with Cut Copy’s signature keyboard and electric guitar. The lyrics are hopeful, as with most others on the album, and exemplify the eccentric mood of the album: “We are explorers when beat goes on / We're on a journey to the morning sun,” lead vocalist Dan Whitford murmurs during the chorus.

Whitford continues to throw back to the ’80s with his vocals, much like in the band’s previous albums, and his singing is definitely this album’s highlight. This time around, however, the stellar vocals feel completely out of place amidst the confusion that is the blend of keyboard, guitars, and a slew of other instruments.

Yet, there are moments in which the unfitting vocals can be refreshing and even add to the intended eccentricity of the album. “Dark Corners & Mountain Tops,” the only laid-back song on the album, is bolstered by thought-provoking, hopeful lyrics. “Without you, I wouldn’t care at all,” Whitford repeats for much of the song in a truly haunting way. Riding on Whitford’s artfully garbled vocals, the song is both uplifting and powerful.

The album’s major downfall is that all the songs sound too similar to one another. It is almost impossible to distinguish where one song ends and another begins, especially since each one leads seamlessly into the next. This does not seem to work as well as intended, instead making the album feel like an exercise in monotony . “Meet Me In a House of Love,” with its galloping tempo and stinging synths, sounds too much like “Take Me Higher”—which in turn sounds too much like “In Memory Capsule.” Because of this, the album is more of a 55-minute amalgam of indistinguishable vocals, over dance-worthy techno beats than a collection of distinct songs. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with these components in moderation, they become stale and lifeless over the course of the album, failing to build or evolve towards any larger aesthetic statement.

Cut Copy’s latest release is an imperfect mix between danceable electronica and typical 80s pop music vocals. For a band that prides itself on its eccentricity, the album sounds too similar to other indietronica music. Though replete with the interesting vocals and upbeat melodies that Cut Copy is known for, “Free Your Mind” never aims high enough to surpass clichés of its genre, and is relegated to being another generic brick in the wall of electronica.