| Zonoscope | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 4 February 2011 (2011-02-04) | |||
| Recorded | 2010 | |||
| Studio | ||||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 61:25 | |||
| Label | Modular | |||
| Producer | Dan Whitford | |||
| Cut Copy chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Zonoscope | ||||
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Zonoscope is the third studio album by Australianelectronic music bandCut Copy, released on 4 February 2011 byModular Recordings. Recorded inMelbourne in 2010, the album received generally positive reviews from music critics.Zonoscope reached number three on theARIA Albums Chart, becoming the band's second highest-peaking album afterIn Ghost Colours, which topped the chart in 2008.
At the2011 ARIA Music Awards,Zonoscope won theARIA Award for Best Dance Release and theArtisan Award for Best Cover Art, and was nominated forAlbum of the Year.[1][2] It was also nominated forBest Dance/Electronica Album at the54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012.[3]
The album's title and release date were announced exclusively throughSpin magazine on 2 November 2010.[4] In an interview withmusicOMH, Cut Copy guitarist Tim Hoey said, "I guess we finished touringIn Ghost Colours, and we wanted to strip away what we'd done before and re-imagine sonically with different synths and guitars. We also wanted percussion to become more of a feature, because we had this idea of creating a rhythmic, hypnotic record where time becomes irrelevant."[5] He explained that the album's title,Zonoscope, means "a variety of things", adding, "It was an instrument for us, but it's also the lens you would use to view this kind of world. We wanted Zonoscope to represent this record."[5]
Zonoscope was recorded over a six-month period in awarehouse space inFairfield,Melbourne,[6][7] littered with discarded vintage recording gear and instruments.[4] "There was no Internet in there, barely any heat, nothing, just fucking industrial Melbourne", Hoey said. "We just knew we could kind of go into there and not feel pressured. We were just kind of locked in there by ourselves, and we couldn't have had it sounding how it sounds without us going in there."[4] In an interview withPitchfork, Dan Whitford described the album's recording as "a much more open-ended process where we just sort of went off on these more jammy tangents where we'd just sit there and play stuff for 10 minutes and see what happened—we might end up putting out a 10-disc box set of all the weird extended jams we did on this record. There's more of a repetitive, hypnotic, rhythmic aspect to a lot of the tracks."[8]
The band had the idea of using avocal ensemble while listening toDavid Bowie'sYoung Americans (1975) andPrimal Scream'sScreamadelica (1991).[9] Hoey stated, "[W]hen we started talking to Ben Allen about mixing the record we mentioned that to him and he knew a vocal ensemble in Atlanta that he'd be able to get for us [...] They were amazingly talented singers and they just helped heighten the epic moments on the record which is something we really wanted to try. They also seemed to complement Dan [Whitford]'s voice really well. We didn't necessarily want them to be the focus, just to work in harmony with what Dan was doing and it was amazing to see it work out so well."[9] Regarding the album's influences, Whitford stated, "I was obsessed withFleetwood Mac'sTusk while working on this record—a lot of theLindsey Buckingham tracks have a proto-80s African feel. AlsoTalking Heads,Slave to the Rhythm byGrace Jones, andMalcolm McLaren'sDuck Rock album. And a lot ofacid house era,post-raveindie music likeHappy Mondays and Primal Scream."[8]
The album's artwork uses an image by the late Japanesephotomontage artistTsunehisa Kimura titledToshi Wa Sawayakana Asa Wo Mukaeru (meaningThe City Welcomes a Fresh Morning), which depicts New York City being engulfed in a waterfall.[4] "We saw this representing what the album is about, a tussle between synthetic and organic instruments. It isn't a destruction of the old world, more a creation of the new—it looks archaic, but at the same time it's timeless, referencing music from the past", Hoey said of the artwork.[5]
"Take Me Over" was released as the lead single fromZonoscope on 26 November 2010.[10] Described by Hoey as "certainly one of the morepop moments from the album",[11] the song reached number 10 on theARIA Hitseekers chart.[12] A music video for the single was filmed byKris Moyes in Sydney in November 2010,[11] featuring jungle scenes, anIndiana Jones-style wardrobe and nude models, but it was never released due to production delays.[13] "Need You Now" was released as the album's second single on 25 February 2011,[14] and its accompanying video was directed byKeith Schofield.[13] "Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution" followed as the third single on 7 August 2011.[15] The album's fourth and final single, "Sun God", was released in the United States on 24 January 2012 and in the United Kingdom on 12 February, featuring two remixes byAndrew Weatherall.[16][17][18]
"Where I'm Going" served as the first taste of the album. Peter Gaston ofSpin opined that the song "veer[s] into a more conventional-sounding, guitar-bass-drums combination and seemed to indicate a departure from the sleek,electronic-laced sound ofIn Ghost Colours."[4] Hoey said of the song, "I knew it might throw people a little bit, but at the end of the day it still sounded like a Cut Copy song [...] It's got a pop music element, which runs throughout every Cut Copy song or album. I thought it was actually great to put out first from the record."[4] The track premiered onTriple J'sTom and Alex breakfast show on 16 July 2010 and was offered as a free download from the band's official website.[19][20] It was released digitally and as a limited-edition7-inch vinyl on 20 August 2010.[21][22] A different version of "Where I'm Going" made the final cut for the album, which Hoey said was "more like the original vision we had for that song: more chant-y, kind of tribal, and probably less pop than the version that came out a couple of months ago."[4]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.2/10[23] |
| Metacritic | 71/100[24] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [25] |
| The A.V. Club | A−[26] |
| Consequence of Sound |  [27] |
| The Guardian | [28] |
| Los Angeles Times | [29] |
| NME | 5/10[30] |
| Pitchfork | 8.6/10[31] |
| Q | [32] |
| Rolling Stone | [33] |
| Spin | 8/10[34] |
Zonoscope received generally positive reviews from music critics. AtMetacritic, which assigns anormalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received anaverage score of 71, based on 31 reviews.[24] Spencer Kornhaber ofThe A.V. Club wrote that "Cut Copy's music successfully achievessynesthesia on its own throughout [the album]" and that "each arpeggiator pattern, glow-worm guitar line, and percussive thump onZonoscope bobs in the mix as a luxuriously distinct spot of sound."[26] Mikael Wood ofSpin noted that the album "catches Cut Copy in a pop-attuned mode they've only hinted at in the past" and that it "works best at its most focused and extroverted, as on thedisco-glammy 'Where I'm Going' and 'Need You Now'".[34]AllMusic's Tim Sendra stated, "There isn't a single weak track to be found, and though could have easily done so with no side effects, the group didn't just remakeGhost, they made some subtle alterations here and there to their approach."[25]Pitchfork's Tom Breihan commented that throughout the album, "Cut Copy build a long-form piece of work that moves between genres and ideas and moods without ever sacrificing its dancefloor momentum", adding that the band "have the architecture of dance music down perfectly and the confidence to execute the genre's moves with absolute precision."[31] Matthew Cole ofSlant Magazine viewed that "Zonoscope shows every sign of being a transitional record, and as such, the most significant test of its merits won't be its ability to generate singles as exhilarating as 'Hearts on Fire,' but rather the possibilities it opens up for the band's future", while stating that the album's music "often sounds self-consciously mature in comparison to the band's previous work".[35]
Margaret Wappler of theLos Angeles Times found that "[t]here aren't too many new stones in the pop garden that Cut Copy overturns, but what it roots out is expertly arranged, creating pastiches that raise ghosts from the past while capturing a spirit that's utterly now."[29]PopMatters reviewer Timothy Gabriele describedZonoscope as "an album that is, in parts, loose and jammy" and called it "a deviation with mostly good ideas, some great ones, and enough sparkling synth ambrosia and sing-along chorus hooks to get you through."[36]The Guardian's Dave Simpson felt that the album is "almost like a mix tape, taking snatches of recognisable songs and blending them together into their own tracks with the aim of creating a greater whole [...] This approach won't win the Aussieelectro pranksters awards for originality, but they do it with enough sleight of hand to stay ahead of the lawyers, and it's a lot of fun."[28]Rolling Stone'sJody Rosen noticed the influence of bands such asDepeche Mode,Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark andNew Order on the album, dubbing it "impressive ventriloquism, and the songs are catchy. But the lovelorn sentiments are generic, and singer Dan Whitford's baritone drone adds little to the proceedings."[33] Rob Webb ofNME expressed, "After the ubiquitous presence of '80s-indebted music last year, a follow-up [toIn Ghost Colours] with little stylistic deviation isn't a thrilling proposition".[30]
Pitchfork placed the album at number 28 on its list of "The Top 50 Albums of 2011" and concluded, "Above all, Cut Copy showed that they know how to weave new songs from familiar touch-points and that they have the songwriting chops to make the patchwork feel of a piece."[37]
Zonoscope debuted at number three on theARIA Albums Chart, becoming the band's second highest-peaking album afterIn Ghost Colours, which topped the chart in 2008.[38] In the United States, the album debuted at number 46 on theBillboard 200 with 13,000 copies sold in first week.[39]
All tracks are written byCut Copy.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Need You Now" | 6:09 |
| 2. | "Take Me Over" | 5:50 |
| 3. | "Where I'm Going" | 3:34 |
| 4. | "Pharaohs & Pyramids" | 5:28 |
| 5. | "Blink and You'll Miss a Revolution" | 4:17 |
| 6. | "Strange Nostalgia for the Future" | 2:06 |
| 7. | "This Is All We've Got" | 4:43 |
| 8. | "Alisa" | 4:07 |
| 9. | "Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat" | 4:37 |
| 10. | "Corner of the Sky" | 5:29 |
| 11. | "Sun God" | 15:05 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Artificial Interpreter (The Making ofZonoscope)" | 21:07 |
Credits adapted from the liner notes ofZonoscope.[42]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Date | Label | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | 4 February 2011 | Modular | [56] |
| Ireland | [57] | ||
| Germany | 7 February 2011 | Universal | [58] |
| United Kingdom | Modular | [59] | |
| United States | 8 February 2011 | [60] | |
| Canada | Universal | [61] | |
| Sweden | 9 February 2011 | [62] |
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