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Hurts – Faith

Florian Buechting Media Review No Comments

Hurts - Faith

Hurts - Faith
3.6

Rating

 3.6/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very versatile productions
  • There are songs for everyone in here
  • Beautiful ballads

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Some tracks a re just too odd for me to listen to
  • The album is quite widespread, which may be confusing

Some ten years ago, Hurts popped into all major European single charts with her single Wonderful Life. The British synth-pop band is still active and released their fifth album on 4th September 2020. It is called Faith.

 

Hurts – About The Artists

Hurts are a synth-pop duo from Manchester. Since 2009, Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson do music under that label. The met already four years before that, operating under different names in different bands. After their 2010 debut single Better Than Love had the best chart position in the United Kingdom, the following single Wonderful Life was an international success. The best chart positions were in Germany (#2) and Switzerland (#4), though, while the their home country peak position was 21st. The corresponding album Happiness in the same year did very well in multiple markets and had a worldwide sale of two million units, even though the third single Stay just made it to the charts in few markets. Stay was the last song which made it to the Top 10 in any major market.

On the album side, the duo was able to keep their popularity at least in a limited way. The 2013 album Exile made it to the Top 10 in the UK, Austria, Finland, Germany and Switzerland. The following two albums did quite well in fewer markets. Faith is their fifth album.

 

Hurts – Faith – Track by Track

Faith includes eleven songs. The album lasts 44 minutes.

1. Voices

Voices was somehow the starting single of the Faith campaign. Not too surprisingly: the track has a lot of presence and power and is overall just a great listen. Nice beginning of the album as well.

2. Suffer

The second track Suffer has already been part of the pre-releases for the album. The chorus is very catchy again and is thus the kind of music I would have expected from Faith. However, parts of the song are literally confusing to me.

3. Fractured

The 2:59 minute Fractured is the shortest song of the album. It plays with recitatives, electric sounds and atmospheres. There might be fanboys of this kind of music – but to me, I do not get close to the track at all.

4. Slave To Your Love

First the shortie, now the long one: Slave To Your Love is the longest track on the album, lasting 5:24 minutes. I wouldn’t rate it as an extraordinary masterpiece of pop music, but it is a nice arranged song, definitely. The backing vocal elements even create a quite catchy sound.

5. All I Have To Give

Two songs after the musical noise Fractured, Hurts present a crystal-clear piano ballad in their album. You just cannot argue against that there is music for everyone in this album – even though some people might just like one or two songs. This one is definitely touching!

6. Liar

I know this feels dumb, but the background arrangement of Liar makes me think of Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight. The song is a slow one, so that the contrast to All I Have to Give is not too large.

7. Somebody

At Somebody, Hurts proofs that they also can use electric sounds in a way that I like it. A bit of angry atmosphere, but overall, a really nice song.

8. Numb

Numb is very artificial again, uses sounds like in Fracture. I significantly enjoy this song more than the third track of the album – but it is still best to me if I find the fast forward really quickly.

9. Redemption

Father, help me, do you understand?
All my life, I’ve been a wicked man
Show me mercy and comfort me
I need to find redemption
I’m just trying to find some
Redemption
I’m just trying to find some
Redemption

A very spiritual, religious track. Surprising topic to me, but definitely a nice song.

10. White Horses

White Horses is just a good listen. Nice track, nice melody, easy. May not be too present for the listener, but I enjoy it.

11. Darkest Hour

The beginning of Darkest Hour did not catch me too much, but the song has a strong development and becomes more and more powerful. Strong statement towards the end of the album.

 

Hurts – Faith – Spotify

Here is the Spotify widget for Faith:

 

Hurts – Faith – My View

During the review of Faith, I had one key question in mind most of the time: “Is this sufficient?”. Can Faith bring Hurts back on the winner straight? The album is definitely not too bad – on the other hand, it even more definitely does not contain any smashing song like Wonderful Life. Fans will love it and you will likely not regret it if you buy or stream the songs (some are really too weird to me, though). But don’t Hurts need an album or at least a couple of songs which you still long to listen in half a year? None of them has that potential. And thus, it ends up to a good old German saying: “Nett ist der kleine Bruder von Arschloch” (“Nice is the small brother of a**hole” – meaning nice is just too close to a fail). Above average, but target not reached. Sad – the guys have a lot of potential.

 

 

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