Happiness – Hurts (A Review)

I didn’t think I was aware of Hurts until my twitter friend and all round Mancophile, @TrentFAC242 (the clues in the name) brought them to my attention. But when he posted me a YouTube link for “Better than Love” I realised I’d already seen it and had nodded along approvingly. It was only when I heard the second single “Wonderful Life”, and especially the Freemasons extended mix, I realised how excited I was about their Debut album.

But is it any good? Well my initial reaction was lukewarm and, to be fair, that hasn’t changed.

Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad album. It’s a well produced, well arranged and musically accomplished piece of work that recalls the electronic sounds of the early eighties. (Hints of Pet Shop Boys, Go West, Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran and even Bros!, abound). There is a certain naivety to lyrical constructs, almost too clean, occasionally lapsing close to teenage poetry as they search for an appropriate rhyme. More than once I felt my hand wanting to reach into the air and do an 80’s style power grab (You know, the one where you put your fist above your head then, slowly, pull close to you chest in a demonstration of pain and passion) and in fact in some tracks, most notably “Stay”, are a little boy-bandish. I can almost visualise the “stand-up at the key change moment” perfected by Westlife.

But, that’s not to say there aren’t some stand-out tracks. The two singles mentioned above coupled with tracks such as Evelyn and Devotion (with Kylie Minogue) hint of real potential and, for me, a missed opportunity for the album.

In the end Happiness is a pop record, and knows it with more than a passing nod to the eighties. It’s not without merits and I’d happily listen to it from time to time. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of the more melancholy tracks is played over the final 5 minutes of some American drama as characters look forlornly out into the rain or hug their families as though their life depended on it. It has that sort of feel.

There is enough here to convince me they can do better and I look forward to that difficult second album. But it the end, Happiness, as with the band themselves, is a well polished, nicely presented product that doesn’t (quite) deliver.

Rating 3 out 5

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