Song Review - Cut

Cut

by Hopium

I'll cut off my legs so I can never leave you,

I'll cut out my tongue so I won't ever deceive you,

I'll cut out my eyes so they will never wander,

I'll cut off my hands so there's no chance I'll ever touch another...

And they say there's no modern romance. Spend some time with Melbourne's Hopium and you'll surely disagree. The duo, of which you'll be hard pressed to find much in the way of background information, make an indelible impression upon debut with 'Cut'. On the surface the track is quite a dark slice of electronic pop; rich with industrial sounds, a brooding atmosphere and some dramatic vocal work from Hopium's mysterious front. All of that is great. Not just great, it's all fucking awesome, but the lyrics? Yeah, those lyrics really sold 'Cut' to me and they worked their way under my skin for all the right reasons. 

Boy dumps girl (and is nice enough to drop her at a friend's place), boy goes out on the town and does all the dirty things he couldn't do with formerly mentioned girl, boy realises he's an idiot, boy makes melodramatic statements of body parts he'll cut off/out to prove love for formerly mentioned girl. It's the oldest story in the book, right? Ok... no... but when Hopium are telling the story it's enough to stop you in your tracks, breath held. Lines that look simple on paper like, "everyone here is just a bad version of you," carry an emotional weight with them that I don't think many acts could pull off as well. And the changing, "cut off/out my (x)," lines are the song's highlight. You won't be able to hear them enough. 

Superteam Studios' Riba and Gil, along with Chris Mitchell and Yoav Lester (brother of Anita aka Lester The Fierce, seriously talented family) have created a video with production values as engrossing as Hopium's own on 'Cut'. Everything works together beautifully, but you'll come to that conclusion on your own. Hopium are certainly going to capture the attention of music listener's the world over with 'Cut'. As far as debuts tracks go, it really doesn't come better. Already scoring play on Home and Hosed last night on the j's, you've got to believe Hopium have an exciting road ahead to travel and I'm looking forward to taking the journey with them. 

Matt Bond gives 'Cut' five Bjork heads out of five...