Search - Hurts :: Happiness

Don't preview- just buy it already!!!

Kelly Glenn | USA | 09/21/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First off, I live in the U.S., which makes it sort of difficult to get this album. You have to buy the physical CD, or wait until the U.S. I-Tunes store catches up to the U.K. store, and actually offers the album for download. Fortunately for me, I am rather old-school and like having the actual physical CD. Yep, I'm over 35.

This album is phenom. It does have a bit of retro 80s flair to it, but not so much that after one or two listens, you feel like throwing the CD out the window and dismissing it as mere 80s copycat crap. 80s influenced? Probably. But is that a good thing? Hell yes! Listening to the CD brings to mind classic OMD, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, and other such 80s greats, but it still has it's own sound. Enough influence to catch your attention, yet enough of it's own merit and style to keep you wanting more.

Do yourself a favor- if you even consider yourself a minor fan of electro-pop, purchase this CD. If you consider yourself a major fan of the electronic/synthpop genre, then this is right up your alley.

You will not be disappointed!"

Elegant, stylish return to the 80s in 2010

vedderoh1 | NJ United States | 09/20/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The fastest selling debut of 2010 in the UK comes preceded by massive press coverage, a sold out UK tour, support from world famous artists, and a word of mouth hype not experienced since the Arctic Monkeys. Who are Hurts, and why the sudden focus on a duo that borrows the 80's stylized aesthetics? As we discover, this time it all may be justified, for a change.



Singer Theo Hutchcraft and synthesizer guru Adam Anderson met at a club in their native Manchester. Their liking of confined landscapes and the somber sound of European bands is an obvious redundancy that needs to be mentioned if their music is to be understood as a means to escape earlier hardships, and their determination to never go back there. Even though they admit to purposely not having listened to other anyone while composing the record to avoid sounding like other bands, they dug way down in the trunk of British tradition, from Tears for Fears and Depeche Mode to Coldplay and Take That, to add modernity to the production.



They aimed to create multidimensional music, that not only plays well on a stereo or a live show but also in a club or anywhere the listener finds themselves drawn to it. Did they succeed? Yes, in part. Happiness is a a mirror image of the two men's impeccable looks, not devoid of emotional power. In the eleven tracks (twelve if you count hidden Verona) they take us on a ride through the darkest effects love and loss have in the human psyche, but despite the burdensome topics it all plays swiftly, thanks to the polished production and often operatic arrangements.



Opening Silver Lining delivers everything that made 80's music appealing: bombastic keyboards, singalong lyrics, soaring choruses, and singles Wonderful Life and Better than love prolong the experience. Kylie Minogue lends her voice to Devotion (in return to the duo's incredible cover of Confide in me), a melancholic ballad that not for a second becomes hers. Hurts make anything they touch their baby and there is no denying it.



The record plays great, feels great, and sounds even better. Are we talking about a band that transcends barriers and may have universal appeal? At some point yes, but not quite yet. Someone pointed out to me that maybe we are just too cynical to recognize the innocence in the simple lyrics to a ballad, or that maybe the state of pop music has taken us away from the real essence of it. So is it the record's naivete that fails to surpass the mark or our jaded ears that do not allow us to look beyond its facade?



Happiness is not a five-star album by any means, but it has achieved more than it set to be. By flashing back to an era relished by everyone as magical, carefree, it has regressed to the simplicity of the complex; it catapults the saxophone solo, the epic synthesizer arrangement, the power chorus to a new phase that the languid structure of the indie pop song cannot possibly convey."