Album review: Hurts – Surrender
By Ben Kelly
The third album from the monochrome Mancunians is another blast of bittersweet electro pop, in the same vein as its predecessors. The very essence of Hurts is summed up on light pop track Why when Theo sings “If this is love then why does it hurt so bad?”
Surrender is full of the kind of sing-along anthems that light up their live shows; from Nothing Will Be Bigger Than Us to Wings, there are plenty of stadium ready choruses. The gospel choir who appear on the title track were also present at recent showcases, implying a slight shift in style.
Subject wise though, there’s plenty of continuity – with tracks about personal misery and relationships with women whose equal misery would give Lana Del Rey a run for her money. Rolling Stone concerns a down-on-her-luck stripper from Belarus, but provides one of the best choruses of the album: “She said her daddy was an alcoholic/And her mommy was an animal/Now she’s living like a rolling stone/She said the law will never take her alive, if they take her home.” If that’s not dark enough, the closing track follows an odd romance with a doomed policewoman.
There’s a light dance moment on Kaleidoscope, with other stand out tracks including the ballad Wish, and the single Some Kind of Heaven. There’s nothing dramatically new here, but it’s an undeniably satisfying continuity effort.
Rating: 8/10.
Surrender is out now. Click here for more Hurts info.
