If the somewhat stark Watching the People Blur album title offers hints of Lowery-style industrial futility, then the Bandcamp release bio takes us headlong on a one- way ticket to the ‘meaningless of it all’, opining with typical humorous resignation:

How many people do you see each day who you will never see again? Hollow Bodies’ sixth album finds poetry inside of a regular commute. Over the course of 9 story songs the Seattle rockers survey Sisyphean lawn-enthusiasts and powerpoint presentations gone wrong to help you survive your nine to five.

Not that this  Seattle-based trio forces their disaffection upon the listener. For theirs is a more subtle approach that persuades you of the pertinence of their disaffection and forgoing obvious melancholy with the justaposition of fuzz, jangle riffs, and a sound reminiscent of mid-2000s alt-rock greats such as Elbow, Interpol, and Idlewind  in Set Of It All, Hold Onto Midnight and Adrift all of which are engulfed by the beauty of Anand Balasubrahmanyans’ vocal delivery that is very reminiscent of Paul Heaton’s immaculate sweetness.

In fact, the blue-collar everyman feel of one of Heaton’s acts, The Housemartins, is heard in the incessant drive and playfulness of tracks best represented by Battery Park Wallflower, Instinct, and Bronze, which are the sort of adult-pop tracks that tick every earworm box imaginable.

If you have not succumbed to the joys and possibilities of the Hollow Bodies vibe yet, this album is quite probably their finest yet and is a superb place to start that journey.

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