Happy Chaps

Hurts - Happiness [MAJREC 031 UK 2010 24-Bit FLAC]

Theo Hutchcraft met Adam Anderson on a rowdy Manchester night out in late 2005, where both realised they wanted to be pop stars. They formed Manc indie-synth band Bureau and quickly had a minor local hit After Midnight on their hands. Fast forward to 2009, and Bureau had dwindled from a five piece to the duo of just Hurts.  The pair taunted the music industry with a short run of self-promoted commercial pop tracks only available as independent downloads  - a deal with RCA Records quickly followed and some of those original tracks were polished up for re-release as singles.

Happiness was the resultant long player and it was well-received internationally, giving the pair the stardom they had strived hard for.  This is an album of highly catchy and glossily produced commercial synthpop, but still tinged in enough attitude to hold my interest - you may encounter a certain well know Australian pop star adding her vocals to at least one track. This album is also one of the highlights of a decade of dull & dreary pop as the duo found a perfect pop formula but still retained full artistic control - well at least at first! My copy is virtually unplayed as I only ever played the compact disc edition which was also included with the release. That CD is incredibly loud, thankfully the vinyl edition is a little more restrained, even if I was concerned that the stylus needle was going to jump out of the grooves as it worked its way to the centre. 

A1 Silver Lining
A2 Wonderful Life
A3 Blood, Tears & Gold
A4 Sunday
A5 Stay
A6 Illuminated
B1 Evelyn
B2 Better Than Love
B3 Devotion
B4 Unspoken
B5 The Water
B6 Verona

Verona remains uncredited on most versions of the album.