Tim Hoey - the guitarist and sampler of Melbourne-based synthpop quartet Cut Copy - walks us through Zonoscope, the band's third album, and their first since 2008's chart-topping In Ghost Colours.

1. 'Need You Now': This is the most personal song on the record, for me. We loved the idea of having this really epic song, like Bruce Springsteen's 'On Fire'; a stadium [sized], really emotional song, without it sounding too emo. It's certainly my favourite, and it's a perfect way for us to begin the record.

2. 'Take Me Over': This one is our straight-up AM radio pop song. It's pop in its purest form, as far as Cut Copy knows it. There's a heavy emphasis on percussion, and that song very much is representative of that. It's certainly one of the more pure pop moments on the record.

3. 'Where I'm Going': It's one of my favourite tracks, because it's quite different: it's quite 'chanty' and there's no real chorus. We really like those old Beach Boys records that deal with subject matter that's quite depressing; the songs are about heartbreak, but the music's quite uplifting. We always found that really interesting, to see people singing along and smiling to these songs about alienation and heartbreak.

4. 'Pharoahs + Pyramids': This track is straight-up house music, boiled down to its simplest [form]. We were listening to a lot of Chicago house at the time; Adonis, and stuff like that. We added live percussion over the top of it, along with sequenced, synthetic percussions, so it helps tie in with the rest of the tracks on the record. It's quite a pop song as well; it was our intention for it to exist within a club, but you can also listen to it at home.

5. 'Blink And You'll Miss A Revolution': This one surprised the hell out of us. The verses were built on this rhythmic groove that referenced stuff like Moodymann; Chicago and Detroit techno stuff. The choruses burst out into this mysterious 'Cities Of Gold' type of thing, which was quite unexpected. We wrote this very strange-sounding chorus that we felt people wouldn't have expected [to see] coming. It felt like a bit of a stylistic triumph for us.

6. 'Strange Nostalgia For The Future': We spent a lot of time on the track order and how songs were going to run into one another. We felt like it was a very important aspect of what we do. Doing these kind of instrumental interludes is very important because it's about creating a flow. The title is a reference to a Brian Eno quote. It's a dreamy, lush-sounding track, and it helps give the record some breathing room. I think it was the last track we did.

7. 'This Is All We've Got': It's very much a return to that shoegaze kind of sound. It's the most abrasive guitar song on Zonoscope. Dan [Whitford - vocals, keyboards] is singing like he's never sung before on this record, and that song's a great example of it: he switches to this really high, angelic kind of voice that I haven't really heard from Dan before. I'm really happy with how we got the balance of the guitar on that song, where there were really noisy guitars in harmony with the clean pop elements.

8. 'Alisa': I'm not sure I can really say who Alisa is. It's quite a scathing song. I remember when Dan brought the lyrics in, we were like, 'wow, Dan, this really goes for the jugular,' and I think he had a little smile on his face [laughs]. But I'm not sure it's about anyone specifically. 'Alisa' is a great name to be able to scream out in the chorus; it's very dramatic. That was one of those songs that, in its initial form, went for about 18 minutes. The intro locks into this very Krautrock-driven groove. We condensed it down to the four minute version that you hear.

9. 'Hanging Onto Every Heartbeat': It's very groove-based: it locks into this groove in the verse, where it's very smooth, and then it breaks out into this very euphoric chorus. Ariel Pink's 'Round and Round' did that last year, where it locked into these tension-building verses and then exploded during the chorus. I really like songs that do that.

10. 'Corner Of The Sky': We like the idea of reinterpreting the songs live [compared] to what they are on the record. I really like it when bands do that, because it gives the audience something new to listen to, unlike just coming and hearing the record note-for-note. A lot of the songs on the record are quite percussion-heavy, and so we've extended that in the live version. There's a lot more layers of percussion, and we have more people playing on stage. I think this track is going to be a nice moment in the show, because it's quite uplifting, and has the element before the chorus where it drops out and builds up, like it's about to take off.

11. 'Sun God': We definitely didn't want to put a 15 minute song on a record for the sake of putting a 15 minute song on there. It had to have a reason to be on there, especially with peoples' attention spans these days. Who wants to listen to a 15 minute song unless it's worth it? I love records that have that kind of climax; like on Sonic Youth's Washing Machine, 'The Diamond Sea', which goes for 20 minutes or something. I've listened to that song about a million times over the course of my life, and I always listen to the full track because it's something that you can't just switch off. Zonoscope is very much about immersing yourself in this world that you can be completely immersed in; where time becomes irrelevant.

Zonoscope is out today on Modular Recordings.  Read our review here. Cut Copy have been added to the Playground Weekender bill; click here for details.
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