Happiness - Hurts - Album Review
According to hmv.com, I pre-ordered my copy of Happiness on the 30th of May. I remember doing it, it was listed as Hurts - TBC. At that time, they had one video on youtube, Wonderful Life. This was followed up by what you probably watched if you were a gullible Muse fan who has Facebook, Better Than Love, with Blood, Tears & Gold preceding that. With each song that was put up on youtube, I became more and more excited. Rarely has a band came out of nowhere with songs as polished and brilliant as these, so I could hardly wait for when the album came out (and when it was actually given a title). Seeing them at T in the Park only whetted my apetite further, their haunting live show giving a taster of what other wonders were to come in September.
My copy of Hapiness only plopped on to my doormat on Saturday, but since then it's never been off. It's signed into the bargain, so when they become huge, i'll be able to boast at having a real collectable in my CD collection (or send it straight to ebay if i've falled on hard times). My first problem with listening to the album was the way I had mentally divided it up in my mind. I already knew four songs, the 3 mentioned before and Illuminated, as they were all on youtube and i'd hardly had them off in the run-up to hearing the album. This does create a bit of a problem as it makes the album feel disjointed as you listen to it, but it's certainly boosted by the fact that the rest of the songs are all on a par with what you'd heard already. Each track, even the duet with Kylie Minogue and the rather depressing closer The Water, is a complete work of art, an emotive masterpiece from one of the up and coming passionate singers in music today. Theo Hutchcraft's vocal work is a rare find in todays world of auto-tune and crap new music, one which sounds both polished and yet passionate with every syllable he sings.
The general theme of Happiness leaves its title a complete oxymoron, the majority of the songs are heartfelt pleas to an unknown woman (or, Evelyn) and in each instance of this, you can feel the pain that's in the voice. This is surprising, considering a work of such deep meaning has such a polished, stylised feel to it. Hurts' music is as much about the image as the actual lyrical content, and it does suffer from this at times. There are moments where you feel that whoever produced it (self-produced in the majority, now that I checked) was focusing too much on touching it up and making it just right, and forgot the essence of what was originally there. Thankfully, whenever this happens it simply adds to the charm, so youre enjoyment wont be detracted from as you have it on. Even the occaisonal burst from opera man (another reason to experience them live) doesn't feel too over the top, all of the eccentricities combine into one beautiful package which makes you think, these two (and whomever they have backing them, as there only are two official members of Hurts) are going places.
Ultimately, although i've only had a short time to listen to the album in full, I can tell that it's an instant classic. As I have mentioned before, it irks me greatly that Manchester has produced two brilliant bands and debuts in one year (the other being Acolyte by Delphic), two albums that are definate contenders for album of the year into the bargain. All we have to do now is hope that Hurts stick around for longer than this one effort, as they certainly deserve all the fame they get.
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Next week, i'll review Flamingo by 1/2 of The Killers
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