Hailing from the musical hotbed of New Zealand, Cut Off Your Hands is, very much, cut from the lineage of other Kiwi bands like Look Blue Go Purple, The Chills, The Bats, and The Clean among others as they write memorable, simply complex songs featuring harmonies and emotions. For me, Hollow reminds me of two specific decades: the 1960s and the 1980s.

Let’s start with the earlier one. Cut Off Your Hands’s second record Hollow has a distinctly cheery sound, reminiscent of The Byrds in their prime. There are intricate guitar sounds with a fair amount of reverb and other AM pop-type effects. The band’s connection to The Byrds is solidified when you hear them harmonize on songs like “Nausea,” the second track on the album and one of the standouts overall. Lead singer/songwriter Nick Johnston has a sweet, mid-range voice, the type of voice that has to be harmonized because it always works well. In addition to the details, the album has much of that hazy feeling of 1960s records. When listening to the album, it feels as if one is just walking through the woods and watching the trees sway in the afternoon breeze. While there definitely is a connection between COYH and The Byrds that cannot be discounted, the 80s connection is considerably stronger in my mind.

When I listen to this album, I hear at least three different bands, none of which are the oft-referenced Echo & The Bunnymen. To be fair to those other critics, there’s a little bit of Echo there, but not enough for me to point to it. The first band that I hear is Close Lobsters. While COYH does not jangle as much as them, the lyrics and sonic styles are very, very similar, making COYH seem like they could have been on the C-86 tape had they been around then. The second is The Smiths. A song like “Hollowed Out” wouldn’t have been inappropriate on Louder Than Bombs with its detailed guitar work and general melancholic feel. It doesn’t seem like much of a leap in my mind to hear Morrissey singing this song rather than Johnston. The last is The Go-Betweens. While I have no idea how large the influence this band was on them, many of COYH’s songs sound like Go-Between songs. They are cleanly organized, very smooth, and extremely catchy while still maintaining that post-punk rawness. I get weird flashes of Before Hollywood and Liberty Belle… in “By Your Side” and “Oh Hell” among other tracks.

If you haven’t been able to pick it up through all of the name dropping that just happened, COYH is not the most original of bands in the music world right now.Original or not, Hollow itself is a very solid album. If it has one real problem, it’s the fact that the songs sort of blur together. To me, all of the songs sound distinct, but I’ve also been paying attention to the album so I can review it. If it were playing in the background, I wouldn’t be able to really tell the differences between tracks. In the end, if you like that gloomy 80s post-punk sound or are a fan of the Flying Nun catalog, I recommend this album to you. It’s not going to be on any end-of-year lists, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a solid release. If this album is any indication, I’m excited to see what they come out with next.