I'd say I have a complicated relationship with Hurts, but that would imply I know them rather than simply enjoy their music, despite them sounding like a lot of the generic dross that refuses to leave the mainstream charts.
Their second and previous album Exile was a muddled, drawn-out and tiresome affair that had four good tracks (although the title-track itself is easily my favourite track from the pair) and I managed to avoid any announcement of a third album until the week of it's release.
Maybe it's that, maybe it's the fact that (spoilers here) Surrender is not only a great album, but a simple must-buy for those who just want a short, bittersweet and catchy pop album or maybe it's a combination of both, but yes, in one of the least likely sentences I thought I'd ever write in terms of music; Hurts' Surrender is one of the albums of the year.
Unlike the dark but catchy pair of albums from before (or Happiness and parts of Exile), Hurts have never sounded bigger or more confident on Surrender. Even Theo Hutchcraft's vocals and lyrics are more hopeful at resolution than previous albums, although he still retains elements of brooding and an underbelly of darkness.
The sound itself is made up potential club anthems tropes such as utilising pitch shifting for catchy backing vocals and hooks (like Some Kind of Heaven), catchy backing synths for explosive choruses (Nothing Will Be Bigger Than Us) to simple but effective song structures with catchy hooks (Why, Lights, Wings).
Did I mention that it's catchy?
Despite this, it's still somehow Hurts buried beneath all of the evolution and at just over half an hour, Surrender is an easy but satisfying listen, one that I've made several times since it's release and one you should make if you want pop music at it's near perfect best.
9/10
H
@Retcon_Nation
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