Freeze, Melt
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''Freeze, Melt'' is the sixth studio album by Australian
electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...
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), ...
. It was released on 21 August 2020 by Cutters Records and The Orchard. The album was produced by the band leader, Dan Whitford. ''Freeze, Melt'' spawned three singles: "Love Is All We Share", "Cold Water" and "Like Breaking Glass".


Background

The album was written over three years, after Dan Whitford had relocated to
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...
, Denmark, and recorded in nine days in
Park Orchards, Victoria Park Orchards is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Manningham and Maroondah local government areas. At the 2021 census, Park Orchards recorded a pop ...
, just outside
Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
. The first song created for the album was "Cold Water". Musically, the material is a departure from Cut Copy's previous, more dance-oriented style and turns towards
ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...
. The more introspective nature of the album is a result of Whitford's life in a
Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...
n country.


Release and promotion

On 8 May 2020, Cut Copy released the single "Love Is All We Share". It was followed by the second single, "Cold Water", on 26 June 2020, along with the announcement of the album release. The third single preceding the album, "Like Breaking Glass", was released on 5 August 2020. All songs from the album were accompanied by visualisers created by Takeshi Murata and Christopher Rutledge. In August, the band announced a tour in Europe for spring 2021.


Reception

''Freeze, Melt'' received mixed to favourable reviews from professional
music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...
upon its initial release. At
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...
score of 69, based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". At AnyDecentMusic?, it scored 6.4 out of 10 points. In a positive review for
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
, Tim Sendra acclaimed ''Freeze, Melt'' as Cut Copy's "most inward looking and sparsely constructed work to date" and "a daring move for the band". Writing for '' Clash'' magazine, Josh Crowe concluded that it is "as meticulous as it is melancholy, which is what makes it so profoundly personal and universal at the same time". In a more critical review in the ''
Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...
'', the album was described as "intriguingly knotty but a bit self-defeating".


Track listing


Charts


References

{{Authority control 2020 albums Cut Copy albums The Orchard (company) albums