The second studio album from English synth-pop duo Hurts is named Exile. This album is a real bag of tricks in terms of style and genre, a quality that has its positive and negative aspects.
The opening track ‘Exile’ really is a triumph, and it is easily one of the best tracks on the album. It contains everything that is good about the genre; catchy lyrics, a good hook and a brilliant build up to a crescendo.
The vocal prowess of the album is also excellent; the third track on the album ‘Sandman’ surprised me very much. At first I did not think it was the same band as the first two tracks. It has a R’n’B quality to the melody, and a very mainstream pop chorus which is not really to my taste; but it reveals a diversity to their musical style, which stops the album from being repetitive as some synth-pop albums can be.
Other stand-out tracks on the album include ‘The Road’ and ‘The Cupid’. They could not be more different musically, however: ‘The Road’ is a thumping pop ballad, that alternates between mellow verses and explosive choruses, while the latter is more of a Scissor Sister-esque sex-funk number, with a slide guitar part always thrown into the mix just for safe measure.
This is not to say that this album is not free of cheese – naturally, it would not be a synth-pop album without an orchestrated bridge. This appears in the song ‘Somebody to Die For’, but a bit of cringe-worthy music never did anyone any harm.
Having said all this, I did get a slight sense of repetition, and it was sometimes hard to differentiate between songs. They are well-executed, but I would have been happier to see a shorter album with more raw originality. This is, all in all, a very satisfactory album.
Although it’s definitely not a classic, it certainly ticked a lot of boxes in good and bad ways. I’d have to say that even though ‘Exile’ is not a contender for my favourite album of the year, it definitely is a strong second album for the Mancunian duo.
MICHAEL COOPER