Hollinden’s music outside the classroom

Mark Galup and Andy Hollinden’s new album, “Lucky Hands in Trying Times,” is a collection of finely crafted pop songs. The album rarely rocks out, but it instead focuses on establishing an emotional connection.

Galup, a Bloomington musician, and Hollinden, a professor in the Jacobs School of Music, originally worked together on Hollinden’s previous album before deciding to do a full collaboration. The album’s 12 songs are divided evenly, with Galup on the odd-numbered tracks and Hollinden on the even-numbered tracks. Amazingly, the songs flow well, even with the simplistic sequencing.

Galup’s songs tend to be a bit more rootsy and melodic, while Hollinden’s songs sound extremely personal. Occasionally, his printed lyrics seem a bit too obvious, but that’s forgotten in the context of the song.

Galup and Hollinden don’t stray too far from mid-tempo songs, but “Lucky Hands” still finds a pop formula that works. It’s refreshing to hear good local music and to know you can still do something fun outside of your day job.