Moments

Moments

Five years after 2020’s Freeze, Melt, Cut Copy have only grown more nuanced and self-reflective, with soft-sung leader Dan Whitford leaning into confiding closeness across Moments. That suits the Melbourne band’s warm, tender synth-pop, which can still flash back to their more extroverted past with selectively clubby touches. American singer Kate Bollinger lends dreamy guest vocals amid some weepy steel guitar on “Belong to You”, a track that balances melancholy and motion in a way that feels distinctive to Cut Copy. The like-minded “Still See Love” explores the stark duality between its peppy verse and pensive chorus, while “When This Is Over” taps a poignant choir of children and “Gravity” morphs its way through a slippery, suite-like structure. Yet, even when a song starts off mellow, the band often introduces some engaging new facet near the end, from the vocodered mantra closing the slow-burn title track to the burbling layers coming to a head during the final minute of “More Alive”. This album may be fairly low-key, but Cut Copy still know how to hypnotise with sneaky hooks and quiet sincerity.