(Speak n Spell/Inertia)

New Zealand four-piece in star-reaching form on debut album.

Like their celebrated second EP Blue On Blue, debut album You & I sees NZ quartet Cut Off Your Hands under the guidance of former Suede guitarist and celebrated producer Bernard Butler. The result is a big, even grandiose, melodic pop/rock album, suitably drenched in large-scale, epic arrangements. The accompanying press material features an assertion from frontman Nick Johnston that he found himself inspired by the famed wall-of-sound productions of Phil Spector-overseen girl groups, such as The Ronettes and The Crystals. This influence can be heard most clearly on towering opening track Happy As Can Be, a symphonic pop tune complete with castanets, and the cavernous, haunting Nostalgia. Elsewhere, Expectations shows the band’s knack at spunky power pop and Oh Girl is a wonderful example of tuneful radio-friendly rock that doesn’t make you want to wretch. Now calling London home (in keeping with their admittedly Anglophile anthems), Cut Off Your Hands have unleashed an album chock-loaded with heart, ambition and winning hooks.

****

MATT THROWER

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