My top ten tracks of 2008: #10 “Hearts on Fire,” Cut Copy.

5 Comments | Posted: December 12th, 2008 | Filed under: Music, Video | Tags: ,


I love how this band, who produced the pleasant-but-forgettable Bright Like Neon Love, decided to kick the sophomore jinx in the ass with their second full length, In Ghost Colors. What stands out for me in Cut Copy’s material is their sincerity; so many of their contemporaries use irony to cover up faults in their songcraft, but Whitford, Hoey, and Scott treat the music just seriously enough to make it clear that they are interested in a career, not one or two singles. There’s hints of New Order (those basslines!) and Depeche Mode (Whitford’s not far away from Gahan on the vocalists-who-know-their-limits charts,) but they’re just that: hints. I love the melodic synth lines and the way the entire song builds to the chorus’s hands-in-the-air moments, a celebration of pop and the dancefloor that doesn’t seem to pander to either.

(Speaking of the dancefloor, there’s a Calvin Harris remix of this song that’s just amazing. It’s available, not properly labeled, on AmazonMP3.)

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5 Comments on “My top ten tracks of 2008: #10 “Hearts on Fire,” Cut Copy.”

  1. 1 Brent Keane said at 12:43 am on December 13th, 2008:

    Kevin, I have to offer a belated ‘thank you’ for introducing me to Cut Copy; when you posted the video for Lights & Music earlier this year, I watched it, but was nonplussed at first. Slowly, though, it worked its way into my head, as if to say, hey, you wanna like this stuff, you grew up listening to this sort of thing! And as you say, their influences are prominent, but they wear them without cloning them wholesale.

    Plus, y’know, they’re Aussies, so there’s a small amount of parochial pride there.

    Thanks again – without Cut Copy, I feel my listening habits would’ve been very different these part twelve months…

  2. 2 gwen said at 9:25 pm on December 13th, 2008:

    suck it, Internet Boyfriend, Bright Like Neon Love is one of the best albums ever. you know NOTHING.

  3. 3 gwen said at 9:26 pm on December 13th, 2008:

    p.s. check it yo:
    http://keul23.free.fr/Mes%20Bootlegs/Mighty_Mike_-_Neverending.mp3

  4. 4 Kevin Church said at 1:04 am on December 14th, 2008:

    SO. MUCH. LOVE. FOR. GWEN.

  5. 5 stannate said at 10:53 am on December 31st, 2008:

    I heard this song “backwards,” since I’m more familiar with the cut-up Calvin Harris mix than the original. Either version is impressive.

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