Hurts - Happiness

Title: Happiness
Artist: Hurts
Genre: Electronic Pop
Release Date: 27th August 2010
Label: Four Music (Sony)



Album Review

Sometimes it just takes a little tune like ‘Wonderful Life’ to put a duo, in this case Theo Hutchcraft & Adam Anders aka HURTS, into the spotlights of everyone and making them famous. The downside of such a quick rise can be that people just cling to that one song and disregard everything else the band puts out, branding them as a one-hit wonder. The first song of a series on their debut album ‘Happiness’ is called ‘Silver Lining’ and reveals slight industrial influences under the poppy surface “The rain's going to follow you wherever you go / The clouds go black and the thunder rolls“ Don’t we all feel like just that is happening to us, and don’t we wish for the rain to finally stop and the clouds to clear? But sometimes it just doesn’t happen and we keep on wandering in hopes it will someday.

The low-key play of an organ and raindrops consistently hitting the ground like a clockwork start off what we all have come to love by now: ‘Wonderful Life’! The song gets into your head on first listen and you won’t rid of it anymore once it has, believe me. You sing “Don’t let go / never give up it’s such a wonderful life” no matter if the song’s playing right now or not. If it does you’ll additionally tap or dance along to the clutching, clapping rhythms kicking in with these lines and the texture wave washing over you. ‘Blood, Tears & Gold’ slows it down significantly. The first few moments just belong to Theo’s mellow vocals and a subdued backdrop of synths until there comes the chorus and submerges everything in longing and melancholy. In case you’re having the urge to dance now, then you’ll be more than pleased to hear ‘Sunday’ is the right track to do so, where classical, acoustic and electronic elements fuse with an anthemic chorus to create the full experience.

I’ve declared ‘Stay’ one of my favourites upon first listen. It’s kind of like a theme for a certain scene in a movie. With a chain of emotions, wrapped in a series of notes that elicit a sequence of pictures in the subconscious and overwhelming feelings! A tranquil hand grabs what’s left of a broken soul on ‘Evelyn’, it pleads in desperation “Stay with me Evelyn / don’t leave me with the medicine”, words flying away on orchestral strings to disappear in the distance as fast as they’ve come. In its second coming, the pleading’s getting urgent, expressly underlined with forceful drum beats and swelled strings. The song builds to an impressive peak to slowly fade away in silence. Now imagine there’s a river flowing through unknown lands, inhabiting the feelings and fears of a lonely soul. The album closer ‘The Water’ is just that, channelled through unknown ways into a poignant ballad that with the help of an orchestra soars up to epic scales. Couldn’t that song just have been a little longer, because it’s amazing!

If I talked in the introduction about the one-hit wonder branding it was, because it was just what I thought in the beginning. That song is brilliant, but it’s too often that the magic such a song inherits, just can be found in that single song. ‘Happiness’ is proof it not always has to be like that. Hutchcraft and Anderson just sat down and let the songs pour out of their heart and soul and I think that is the reason why ‘Happiness’ has become what it is. A walk on the paths of classical music, electronics and pop with great emotions and gestures, immersed in an aura of elegance!


Tracklist

01. Silver Lining - 5:06
02. Wonderful Life - 4:23
03. Blood, Tears & Gold - 4:26
04. Sunday - 4:01
05. Stay - 4:04
06. Illuminated - 3:27
07. Evelyn - 4:03
08. Better Than Love - 3:41
09. Devotion - 4:16
10. Unspoken - 4:55
11. The Water - 7:03


Line-Up

Theo Hutchcraft - Vocals
Adam Anderson - Electronics, Guitar


Website

http://www.informationhurts.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/ithurts


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 9
Sound: 10
Extras: -
Total: 9.5 / 10


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