Released 6th July 2009


“Milo of Kroton”, the opening track and first single on Cutaways debut, with its to-me-to-you boy/girl vocals, needlepoint guitar and seesawing keyboards sounds like Belle & Sebastian deciding they need to grab a piece of the Killers stadium synth rock action.

Following songs “Weapon of Choice” and “I Spilled Your Drink So You Broke My Heart” continue in this vein; tales of small town frustration and semi-articulated love wedded to sometimes skyscraping, but always artfully lo-fi, pop. The album is studded with lyrical gems, such as “you make my eyes bleed/ in the best possible way” from penultimate track “Lights”.But ultimately, the album is a frustrating listen.


Cutaways most immediate strength also turns out to be their biggest weakness over an entire album – they’re just too cute. Their kooky cuddliness, their sheer take-‘em-round-your-mum’s-for-tea-ness begins to grate quite quickly and you long for singers Paul McIver and Grace McMacken to bare their teeth and snipe rather than sound like they’re about to tickle each other to death.   


Another problem comes with the deployment of their vocals. The greatest girl/boy vocal pairings – from the Human League to Beautiful South to Pixies – have used their differing tones and pitches to create juxtapositions of light and shade, high and low, good and evil. On songs such as “Wrong Cause, Right Words” and “Hey Map My Way” however, McIver and McMacken merely yell and yelp simultaneously and on top of each other. It’s shambolic - not in an amiable Pavement-type way. It’s just a shambles.


There could be much drama and humour to explore in Cutaways bittersweet heartbreak ditties but when successive songs feature little more than overexcited barking, the effect is akin to being verbally assaulted by sugar-saturated, love-struck teens.Despite this, Earth… contains pop magic, as in the bubblegum chorus to “Lovers Are Lunatics” and the pomp of “I Don’t Understand What You Don’t Say”, but it’s all so unrefined, as if the band didn’t recognise it when they had it.


One feels there’s a great indie-pop band struggling to get out of Cutaways current guise. Once liberated, that band will doubtless make a great album. But this irritating itch of a record isn’t it. 

Posted In Album Reviews, Jun 15 2009. Words - Richard