Thursday, May 27th, 2010

Hurts – Better than Love

Is it just me that watches this video and gets reminded of the Kemp brothers as Ronnie and Reggie Kray?…



[Video][Website]
[5.60]

Jonathan Bogart: Jesus Christ. Give the Killers an inch and look what happens.
[3]

Mallory O’Donnell: I think I liked the Killers better when they were just pretending to be British.
[2]

Iain Mew: Successfully marries doomy post-punk and synth-pop in a way which even outdoes Editors’ recent efforts in same for portentousness. Love the range of gorgeous synth osscilations deployed throughout and the occasional dramatic Brett Anderson crack in the singer’s voice, and while there are a few bits between that don’t quite cohere this is hugely promising stuff.
[8]

Martin Skidmore: The dreadful singing of the first line was almost enough to make me abandon this immediately, but I know my duty. To be fair, it has more energy in its music than the last one, but they still can’t create a fresh lyric, and by that I mean even one fresh line. The singing remains awkward and unappealing, and this is an entirely insubstantial song.
[3]

Edward Okulicz: It can’t be ignored that this features some downright horrible singing — Theo’s attempted snarl on the titular line grates — but the synth swirls and dreamy chorus (“turn away, turn away”) take them slightly further away from the moodiness of Tears For Fears and towards the pure pop bliss of Pet Shop Boys — I mean, this one even sounds happy.
[8]

John Seroff: Pitch perfect mimicry is much less impressive when I have no nostalgia for what you’re aping. You see, I’m only barely aware of the musical history of Pet Shop Boys or New Order (i.e. just enough to hear their fingerprints all over this) and so I’m forced to take this on its own merits. It’s… okay? A bit petulant and garish for my taste, but if that doesn’t bother you, there are some charms to be found in the melody. Can’t see this getting any real traction in the States, though.
[5]

Katherine St Asaph: If nothing else, Hurts know how to build anticipation. The intro is faux-eerie bullshit, but it’s effective bullshit. And the song itself doesn’t disappoint; it’s surprisingly tawdry synthpop, and Theo sounds like he actually has a spine. Somehow, too many tracks miss this.
[7]

Ian Mathers: I apparently love these guys so much that they can adapt a song by their old, unheralded indie band and I’ll still love it. The portentous videos, the outsized emotions, the retro backing — at this point, it’s going to take a lot to make me question their instincts or their aesthetic. There’s liking a band’s songs, and then there’s falling for their whole view of the world, and Hurts can count me in the latter camp.
[8]

Alfred Soto: I keep hoping that these dudes conjure as effortless a piece of fey melodrama as “Wonderful Life” but all I’ve gotten are reminders why Camouflage and When in Rome had accidents instead of moments.
[5]

Alex Ostroff: “Wonderful Life” is still their crowning achievement, but with every tantalizing single Hurts release, they further render the past decade’s 80s revivalism moot. Regardless of whether or not the 1980s ever actually sounded like this, the high melodrama, baritone vocals and pulse of the synthesizers evoke the Socratic ideal of James Murphy’s “borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered Eighties”, walking the tightrope between melancholy and rapture without ever stumbling.
[7]

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