Cut Off Your Hands – Hollow (Speak ‘n Spell) CD REVIEW

IT’S A BAND name that’s hard to forget, unlike their music. This NZ group came highly recommended by people whose opinions I usually take seriously, but I’m just as disappointed by this new, more mature work than I was by their earlier stabs at international success.
In short, with Hollow, Cut Off Your Hands have discovered Echo & the Bunnymen and the Beach Boys, with a side of the Byrds, and every song here sounds like one or the other, or a combination thereof.
Inexplicable, really, when all three of these prime influences have already been explored by generations of pop groups, to the point where there’s little more to be extracted.
It’s more jingle-jangle with morose bellowing and failed attempts at Brian Wilson balladry. Sad, really. GARY STEEL

Music = 2.5/5
Sound = 3/5