Concrete Playground

Funny how some things grow on you: beer, vegemite, boys. It's taken me half a first season to get excited by the plot of Boardwalk Empire. Which is kind of how I feel about the new Cut Copy album, Zonoscope.

After a decade of making music together, the Melbournian electro-pop group are back on home turf, with Coachella sweat still fresh under their fingernails, for the Zonoscope Album Tour. Those who fell in love with their 2008 album In Ghost Colours from the first play may not have the patience for Zonoscope. But give it some playtime and you might end up with 360-degree change of heart. You'll start to make sense of the senseless. Swept into a trance, you'll be chanting lyrics in your sleep.

The album cover of Zonoscope, which is the third studio album from the group, features a depiction of New York City engulfed by a waterfall, courtesy of the late artist Tsunehisa Kimura.  A similar exploration of the surreal embodies the 11 tracks of their latest release. After co-opting the sounds of the last 25 years of British dance, Cut Copy take New York disco by storm, incorporating heavy keys, wordless choruses and drums that sound a bit like traffic. Dan Whitford's searching vocals create an atmosphere of intense longing and emotional tenderness.

The boys bring their white-disco light to the Opera House this Sunday as part of Vivid Live.