REVIEW: Cut Off Your Hands - Hollow

Cut Off Your Hands
Hollow
(Speak 'n Spell)
(out of 5)

A few weeks ago I was in Wellington for work. I stayed on for the weekend and naturally gravitated toward Slow Boat Records on Cuba St. Upon purchasing the new Fleet Foxes record (amazing, by the way), I again naturally asked the counter chick if “anything was happening” that night. As it turns out, Cut Off Your Hands were playing just down the road at the famous San Fran Bathhouse. Due to events out of my control (long story), I ended up elsewhere. Upon listening to the young band’s new record, I now regret my decision not to go to the gig (completely walking over my personal ‘no regrets’ policy).

The term Hollow is loaded; it can describe a society that is built on the vulnerability of superficial beauty and that most malignant form of power, money; it can also describe relationships that are built without nails and the individuals scrambling about trying to keep them steady. This is a pop record, and with track titles such as ‘You Should Do Better’, and ‘Fooling No One’ and ‘Down & Out’, I’d suggest that Cut Off Your Hands tend toward the latter.

‘I can see it in your eyes/you’ve been hollowed out inside/you’ve been cut down to size/you’ve been howling at the sky/you’ve been pleading for a muse/but you still can’t make no sense/and you know this world’s an awful mess/if you’re honest' (‘Hollowed Out’). There it is; the fracture; the wound caused by the girl who was as fickle as the autumn weather? (or maybe it was the drugs?). The lyrical intensity of the record lives up to its title, and so lives up to the maturity I have come to expect from the band.

There is a distinct Kiwiana feel to the record; the subtle influences of greats such as Crowded House sneak through, and it is fitting that one of New Zealand’s finest talents in 2011 is looking somewhat to its roots. This element is particularly heard in the throbbing ‘Nausea’ through its honest musicianship and harmony.

Hollow doesn’t contain as much of the raw energy of the band’s earlier work, with the expensive-sounding production creating waves of layers behind each of the songs. In saying this, I know for a fact that Cut Off Your Hands’ live shows do. Next time I happen upon one, I will be there, girl drama or no girl drama.

Cut Off Your Hands - Fooling No One

By Theo Sangster.