Mecuzine: Cutting Strings (Aeroplane/mecuzine.com)

There's no denying the collective talent that is contained within Auckland's Mecuzine – their bio namechecks former bands which include the Cure and Hello Sailor – or that singer and guitarist Tony Johns can write effective, focused pop-rock which should easily find a home on mainstream radio.

In part that is also due to the familiarity of their sound which is frequently referenced in the Eighties when keyboards, funky bass and guitars were integrated into a taut and danceable sound (check the opener Jump the Rope for the archetype).

Their lead-off single Don't Fire That Gun – with a hook, a story and real dynamics – must have been an easy pick for some programme directors.

But if some of the these songs sound so obviously directed, there is real depth and breadth elsewhere: The swelling ballad Darkest Day – with piano – possesses the same kind of easy roll and gripping chorus of Greg Johnson when he began to embrace pop-rock; If I Had My Time Again has a dialed-down brooding quality (“I just can't believe it, how much times goes . . .”) before it embraces its dark time (“I wouldn't change a thing”); and while Save Me goes back to the Eighties for its guitar/funk dance tropes it is pretty damn addictive with soul-ache backing vocals by Erana Maui.

Elsewhere fretless bass adds to their the palette and they would seem to have a radio hit in reserve with either Breaking Hearts (a nod to DD Smash?) or It's In My Head.

At first blush this may seem to wear its borrowed clothes rather too obviously but on repeat plays the nuances come through.

A solid and professional pop-rock album with few pretensions.