Hurts ‘Happiness’ // First Listen

Hurts
‘Happiness’
(RCA)

Imagine, if you please, a world in which during his days as Smash Hits News Editor Neil Tennant spent less time listening to Bananarama and gave a few more spins to ‘Control’-era Joy Division. In this obviously leading metaphor, the Pet Shop Boys would have cornered the market in morbid synth-pop anthems long before the emergence of the Mancunian duo Hurts. With the release of their debut album ‘Happiness’ however, this much hyped pair have the chance to push the tide of chart pop into territory bleaker than the sight of Ke$ha’s liver after a 48 hour party marathon with P Diddy. Rob Leedham gives us a track-by-track guide to their much talked about debut …

‘Silver Lining’
A rush of Machiavellian synth and a push of chiming tubular bells signal ‘Happiness’ is truly upon us. Suddenly Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson retreat from the threat of bombast into a neat pre-chorus appetiser of softly plucked guitar before shedding any last remnants of stage fright in an inevitable powerhouse blast of stuttering electronics and singalong lyrics. “When the world surrounds you I’ll make it go away,” belts out Theo before being enveloped in a macabre mesh of male choir chanting.

‘Wonderful Life’
The track that first garnered this feted duo attention begins with an eerie backing track of Casio chords which Theo takes as his cue to bring forth his morbid tale of two star-crossed lovers set “on a bridge across the Severn on a Saturday night”. Like the plot of every Shakespearian tragedy ever written though, the future bodes ill for Susie and the man of her dreams. A towering tribal drum rhythm kick starts an oblique glimpse into the couple’s fate. “Don’t let go”, pleads Theo who plays his role as pained narrator as only a man with a penchant for slim fitted suits can, “Never look back it’s such a wonderful life.”

‘Blood, Tears & Gold’
“Look into my eyes,” croons Theo over a trembling synth line, “there’s really nothing left to lose”. Cue the ignition of ‘Blood, Tears & Gold’ into a sky-scraping singalong that has future single written all over its beautifully forlorn chorus. By flitting between a slower, more reflective verse and its anthemic “love grows cold” centrepiece, this track affords us the opportunity to sift through our pockets for a lighter to shove in the air and sway along in swooning fashion. A histronic slide guitar solo for the middle third eeks out every last drop of pathos available.

‘Sunday’
Carving a pleasantly reflective middle ground between the cheery hubris of Blondie’s ‘Sunday Girl’ and the morbid poetry of Morrissey’s ‘Everyday Is Like Sunday’, a throbbing mesh of sombre keys and anguished alto allow ‘Sunday’ to soar into its perfect Sabbath themed niche. The euphoric tone of Anderson’s electronic symphony adds a hubris of gleeful camp to the track which is toned down by a typically dour “lonely Sunday” lyrical motif.

‘Stay’
Given the operatic nature of Hurts’ lyrical subject matter the use of all female choir backing vocals provide a neat fit with this string drenched ode to a break up. Concentrated into the single word “stay” and attached onto the end of the gloriously traumatic lyric “We say goodbye in the pouring rain and I break down as you walk away”, this full-bodied kick of harmony should have been more than enough to dry away Theo’s melodramatic bawling.

‘Illuminated’
Thusfar ‘Happiness’ has flashed past at an eye-watering BPM, so it is with some relief that ‘Illuminated’ slows things down a notch and gives us a chance to let the record soak in. A lilting falsetto chorus seeps through the speaker stacks in a luxurious fashion that befits the minor key that the vast majority of this record is composed in. By way of comparison, this makes Ultravox’s ‘Vienna’ sound like a merry day spent in the park with Dougal and the rest of the cast of the Magic Roundabout.

‘Evelyn’
For any band as stylised as Hurts, the temptation to slip into autopilot and churn out a track by numbers must be significant. Reassuringly though, there are enough nuances distinguishing each song from another to bode well for repeat listening. The drama builds by way of another eminently quotable chorus during which Theo wretches ‘Evelyn’ for us not to leave him “with the medicine.” A fizzing synth riff in the middle third is this track’s ace in the hole though, supplemented by a drum rhythm placed at a volume loud enough in the mix to shift tectonic plates.

‘Better Than Love’
The debut single from a debut album needs to distil everything that’s great about a band into the rough and ready timeframe of three minutes thirty seconds. Nevertheless as first impressions go, ‘Better Than Love’ ranks well above a limp handshake courtesy of a shrill chorus line that sweeps you off your feet in one gleefully fun rollercoaster of cascading rhythm. “Does it feel better than love?” questions Theo. Steady on chap, we’ve only just met!

‘Devotion’
It should hopefully be clear by now that this album’s title is something of an oxymoron. Still, one can’t help but think our Mancunian guides to love, loss and every emotion in between are poking fun at themselves in the solo accordion intro to ‘Devotion’. Self-depreciating humour aside, the maudlin theme of follows through with a schizophrenic shuffle beat drum track and an orchestral chorus that sighs along with Theo’s cries of “devotion save me now”. On a side note, various sources have reported Kylie as featuring on this track but we can’t for the life of us hear where she’s meant to pop up. Maybe our ears are impervious to the charms of pint sized Australian pop stars.

‘Unspoken’
You can tell the album is drawing to a close by now as we have officially entered ballad territory. ‘Unspoken’ paves the way to a grandiose denouement with a lush array of strings which come wrapped around an arena filling refrain in which Theo begs his tormentor to “leave it unspoken”. Powerful stuff!

‘The Water’
‘Happiness’ serenades us goodbye by virtue of a refreshingly skeletal piano melody upon which a light smattering of strings are deftly arranged. Such a restrained ending to the album leaves us wanting more though and with over four minutes of the track left to run we suspect Hurts may well have one roll of the dice left to make. Sure enough after an extended silence we are greeted with the sound of the sea softly lapping against a beach’s shore. This sample gently segues with the howl of a weeping violin upon which Theo cannot restrain himself from unleashing one final sublime/ridiculous pining vocal, this time containing a typically oblique reference to “Verona”. It’s a fittingly OTT sign off to an intriguing first listen.

‘Happiness’ will be reviewed in a future issue of The Fly.