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Avg: 3.5 (118 ratings)
- Date Released: October 14, 2008
- Genre: Rock/Pop
- Style: Commercial Alternative
- Label: French Kiss Records / The Orchard
We're watching them closely and expecting very big things
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We Say...
New Zealand's musical exports have mostly consisted of delightful weirdos like Flight of the Concords, Tall Dwarfs and Split Enz, but literate, effervescent quartet Cut Off Your Hands may be the band that establishes Auckland as a hotbed for pop bliss. You and I, the band's debut full-length (recorded as a quartet, though they're continuing on as a trio following the recent departure of guitarist Michael Ramirez), expands upon the intricately-constructed sound of their two EPs, matching jittery, jangly post-punk guitar runs with frontman Brent Harris' spazzy yelps and sneakily anthemic hooks.
Cut Off Your Hands deploy a classic and still-underused method of pop madness: they team up joyous arena rock tricks (hand claps, big singalong breakdowns, big gooey keyboard swells) with Harris' sad-eyed, desolate lyrics. Case in point: "It Doesn't Matter" does such a great job building its swirling hook that it takes a few listens to realize that the centerpiece line is, "Disappointment is never far away." Elsewhere, part of Harris' argument in the fuck-this-town stomp of "Let's Get Out of Here" is "Forget there's nothing left to live for." And besides being the best song Bloc Party will never write, "Expectations" also contains the heartbreaking couplet "These expectations keep pulling at me/ I just can't hold on."
And just when you think these cats are only about shaking and aching, they bust out "Nostalgia," a gorgeous bit of Wall of Sound balladry that would be an instant lighter-waver if the kids still did that at shows. With all these epic moves and grand statements flying around, it'd be easy for Cut Off Your Hands to devolve into parody, but You and I is a striking, confident debut that never fails, never falters and never holds back on any joy or heartbreak. -
They Say...
Put together a bright, breezy guitar pop group with two respected producers and it should be a can't-miss proposition. Unfortunately, Cut Off Your Hands' debut You and I, which was produced by Bernard Butler and Stephen Street (who also mixed), is well-made but, strangely, not as engaging as it should be. The band has an appealing sound, coming off like New Zealand's answer to Maximo Park or Franz Ferdinand (with a touch of the Cure's more upbeat stuff for good measure), and the raw energy of their live shows and early EPs overcame any clichés or obvious influences in their music. The polish Street and Butler bring to You and I reveals just how poppy, and samey, the band's songs can be: it's far from a bad thing that most Cut Off Your Hands' tracks boast huge choruses, but when those choruses feel almost interchangeable from song to song, it's a problem. The album's first half is dominated by tracks that are charming on their own terms -- "Expectations" is refreshingly brash, and "Oh Girl" could be a lost single from some late-'80s new wave band -- but lose their impact as a whole. It's not until the middle of the album, when "Heartbreak" changes from what seems like a typical, strummy acoustic ballad into something stranger with odd backing vocals and keyboards, that You and I gets interesting, albeit not consistently good: "Still Fond" and "Closed Eyes" nail the nervy-yet-sophisticated vibe the first half of the album aimed for, and "Nostalgia" invokes Beach Boys harmonies and a ton of reverb to live up to its wistful name. However, when Cut Off Your Hands try for honest-to-goodness ballads, as on "In the Name of Jesus Christ" and the odd album closer "Someone Like Daniel," they stumble. Even so, You and I's stranger moments reveal that Cut Off Your Hands have more personality than the album's more tasteful songs suggest.
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| 01. |  |
Happy As Can Be |
3:34 |
|
| 02. | |
Expectations |
2:58 |
|
| 03. | |
Oh Girl |
3:24 |
|
| 04. | |
Turn Cold |
2:59 |
|
| 05. | |
It Doesn't Matter |
3:05 |
|
| 06. | |
Heartbreak |
3:39 |
|
| 07. | |
In The Name Of Jesus Christ |
2:53 |
|
| 08. | |
Let's Get Out Of Here |
3:09 |
|
| 09. | |
Still Fond |
3:05 |
|
| 10. | |
Closed Eyes |
3:04 |
|
| 11. | |
Nostalgia |
4:06 |
|
| 12. | |
Someone Like Daniel |
3:19 |
|
12 Total Tracks, 39:15 Total Length
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Credits
- Bernard Butler - Producer // Bernard Butler - Engineer // Stephen Street - Producer // Stephen Street - Mixing // Seb Lewsley - Engineer // Tom Stanley - Engineer // Makoto Sakamoto - Editing // Chris Potter - Mastering // Michael Ramirez - Group Member // Philip Hadfield - Group Member // Joel Kefali - Art Direction // Arnold Skolnick - Photography
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