Album review: Hurts, Exile (RCA)

 

Andy Gill
Friday 08 March 2013 20:00 GMT
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Hurts, Exile (RCA)
Hurts, Exile (RCA)

If Hurts' debut album suffered from too anodyne an interpretation of Eighties electropop, their follow-up, Exile, compounds that failing in several ways.

On the one hand, they've developed the more overblown aspects of their sound into the ghastly new-romantic/Goth stylings exemplified by the grimly chuntering synth riff of “The Road” and the looming ambience of “Cupid”.

On the other, they've augmented their already needy pop mannerism with the kind of vaunting, yearning hooks employed by Coldplay. Innovation, clearly, is not the highest of their priorities. In truth, everything comes a distant second to style.

Download: Exile; Sandman

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