Cut Off Your Hands -Hollow

Fri 15th Jul, 2011 in Music Reviews

Hollow is the second album from one of New Zealand’s finest new bands, Cut Off Your Hands. Coated with layers of jangly, clean guitars, unmistakeably Antipodean lyrical vignettes and wistful vocal inflections, Hollow is a stunningly melodic record that evokes the heyday of Flying Nun Records and the evocative splendour of The Smiths in equal parts.

After a multitude of lineup changes, the Auckland quartet have come full circle and ended up with their original four members. Adding to that sense of stability was the fact that the band opted not to work with Suede legend and debut album producer Bernard Butler, but instead to produce the record themselves. After decamping to drummer Brent Harris’ parents house in the band’s hometown, the band set to work on Hollow, a brilliant record that encapsulates a more quintessentially New Zealand pop sound than their spiky art rock debut You & I.

You Should Do Better opens the record with a wave of windswept jangle pop that washes over the listener, with Nick Johnston’s aching croon giving the track a sense of poignancy. The uptempo folk-pop of Nausea exudes a carefree, laidback ambiance reminiscent of sleepy villages nestled amongst rolling hills across the Tasman, while the ballad By Your Side retains every ounce of the band’s melodic sensibilities while slowing things down to create a lazy afternoon vibe. The breathtaking Hollowed Out follows, the clean guitars in the intro setting the scene for a sweeping pop masterpiece that could easily be a contender for the year’s best track. Sounding like a lost tape from the sessions for The Blurred Crusade and evoking the guitar sounds of 80s Manchester bands The Stone Roses, The High and The Smiths, the track opens up at around the halfway mark and explodes into an anthemic chorus that takes it to new heights.

Oh Hell follows, a Byrds-esque ballad flavoured by wistful harmonies and soft rock strumming, and the track paves the way for the magnificent All It Takes. Perhaps the closest thing to the first record in terms of sound, the track is driven by another memorable hook and strong melodies. Equally memorable is Fooling No One, a propulsive, uptempo track with yet another killer sing-along chorus. The shoegaze-tinged Down & Out carries elements of the early-90s Creation scene in the UK and recalls bands like My Bloody Valentine and Ride through some visceral guitar work from Michael Ramirez, while Johnston laments “If you don’t have it easy/You’re on your own…I’d rather be down and out”. Closer Buried is a wondrous, up-in-the-clouds piece of acoustic-led pop. The track paints vivid mental pictures and gives off the feeling of a stormy afternoon in a seaside hamlet, watching seabirds circle over the ragged shoreline cliffs.

It is rare for a modern day band to release a full-length record containing only nine tracks. But to do so displays great confidence in every track, and Hollow is one of the few records for which that confidence is entirely justifiable. Hopefully Hollow will be remembered and recognised for what it really is – a truly enjoyable and wonderfully written pop record.