''Bright Like Neon Love'' is the debut studio album by Australian
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
band
Cut Copy
Cut Copy (sometimes stylised as Cut/Copy) are an Australian synth-pop band formed in 2001 by Dan Whitford (vocals, keyboards and guitar). Originally a home-recording project, the band now includes Tim Hoey (guitars), Ben Browning (bass guitar), ...
, released by
Modular Recordings
Modular Recordings (known simply as Modular) is an Australian record label founded in 1998 by Steve Pavlovic that is currently owned by Universal Music Australia. It has released music from local artists such as Eskimo Joe, Ben Lee, The Avalan ...
in Australia on 5 April 2004 and in the United States on 18 May 2004. The album was released on vinyl for the first time on 20 April 2013 for
Record Store Day
Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...
, in a limited run of 4000 copies.
Critical reception
''Bright Like Neon Love'' received widespread acclaim from critics. At
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a
normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 81, based on nine reviews.
''
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' compared the album to "''
Technique
Technique or techniques may refer to:
Music
* The Techniques, a Jamaican rocksteady vocal group of the 1960s
*Technique (band), a British female synth pop band in the 1990s
* ''Technique'' (album), by New Order, 1989
* ''Techniques'' (album), by M ...
''-era
New Order fed through
My Bloody Valentine's distortion pedals" and described it as "the album
Daft Punk
Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...
should have made".
In his highly positive review for ''
Drowned in Sound
''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums.
History
''D ...
'', Euan McLean described the album as "the record
The Human League
The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare' ...
could have made if they'd remade
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the line-up for their epony ...
's ''
Rumours'' in 1985" and commended the band for "mixing emotion and technology to perfection".
Controversy
The cover art of ''Bright Like Neon Love'' was closely imitated by the art for Mexican singer
Thalía
Ariadna Thalía Sodi Miranda (; born 26 August 1971), known mononymously as Thalía, is a Mexican singer and actress. Referred to as the " Queen of Latin Pop", she is considered one of the most successful and influential Mexican artists. Havin ...
's album ''
Lunada
''Lunada'' (Spanish "moonlight party") is the eleventh studio album by Mexican recording artist Thalía. It was released through EMI Latin on 24 June 2008 worldwide. ''Lunada'' is Thalía's first album since the release of the successful ''El S ...
'' (2008). Both shared the concept of a face in close-up, wearing sunglasses and bright lipstick. Following criticism by the fans and media, Thalía claimed that the artwork had been presented to her by the design team for her label.
Track listing
Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Bright Like Neon Love''.
Cut Copy
* Dan Whitford – synths, drum machine, guitars, vocals, bass
* Tim Hoey – original guitars, bass, noise
*
Bennett Foddy
Bennett Foddy is an Australian video game designer based in New York. Raised in Australia and trained as a moral philosopher on topics of drug addiction, Foddy was a bassist in the electronic music group Cut Copy and a hobbyist game designer w ...
– original bass
* Mitchell Scott – live drums
Additional musicians
* Dougal Binns – original acoustic guitar
*
Philippe Zdar
Cassius was a French musical duo consisting of producers Philippe Cerboneschi and Hubert Blanc-Francard, better known as Zdar and Boombass (or sometimes Philippe Zdar and Hubert Boombass). Under its different incarnations the duo is likened to ...
, Frédo Nlandu, Julien Delfaud, Alex – claps
Technical
* Chris Scallan – full band recording
* Philippe Zdar – mixing
* Jeff Dominguez – mixing
* Julien Delfaud – mixing
* Frédo Nlandu – mixing assistance
* Pierrick Devin – mixing assistance
* Mike Marsh – mastering
* Dan Whitford – production
Artwork
* Alter – artwork, design
Charts
Notes
References
{{Authority control
2004 debut albums
Cut Copy albums
Modular Recordings albums