Cut Copy’s sophomore album In Ghost Colours was an unexpected masterpiece. The Australian band’s debut was a small-scale electro-pop effort, but Ghost Colours expanded what had begun as Dan Whitford’s solo recording project into an elegantly euphoric and melancholic dance rock record, recalling among other things New Order’s sweeping, pop-minded dalliances with rave. That was three years ago. Now, Cut Copy have returned with third album Zonoscope, and it unfortunately lands like a listless retread, as if, to use a vintage metaphor, the ecstasy has begun to wear off. All the same elements are there: a bedrock of drum machines, bass guitar, and synth chords; pulsing arpeggios; big, hands-in-the-air crescendos; Whitford’s cool, sighing vocals—but with the exception of a few choice moments (the U2-echoing chorus of “Need You Know”; the lackadaisical funk of “Take Me Over”) it never quite takes off with that same spellbinding energy. Still fantastic live, though. With Holy Ghost!. ERIC GRANDY

Tue., April 12, 8 p.m., 2011