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Hurts – Happiness Mancunian electro-duo Hurts (singer Theo Hutchcraft and knob-twiddler Adam Anderson) have been dividing opinion ever since they released debut single ‘Better Than Love’ earlier this year. Some see their heavily polished and highly stylised 80’s synth-pop as too cold and clinical and a demonstration of everything that went wrong with 80’s music […]
Brandon Flowers – Crossfire The Killers front-man embarks on his solo career with the first single from forthcoming album Flamingo, and after listening to it you have to ask – why bother? Usually a solo project frees up a musician to explore different directions – but instead of going a bit electro or full-on country, […]
Part one of my round up of the new singles available for digital download this week. AlunaGeorge – ‘You Know You Like It / Bad Idea’ It does feel like a real let down when you get this sort of musical sequel coming on the coat-tails of ‘Your Drums, Your Love’ and the excellent ‘Attracting […]
Having explored the bottom 25 of the year so far, here are my quarter-century of the best songs in 2013 this year. Do you agree or disagree with my selection? Post your thoughts below. 25. Loveable Rogues – ‘What A Night‘ Released: April A catchy slice of summery pop from the BGT runners-up. With a […]
Single Releases – 19 May (Part 1) Part 1 of this week’s batch of hot new single releases, reviewed by Phil Lickley. Crystal Fighters – ‘You & I’ [rating:3.5/5] The third single from their ‘Cave Rave’ album showcases their summery Spanish roots. Fast paced and perky, it manages to sound both free and flowing whilst […]
Hurts – Exile {rating} Buy: Exile When they burst onto the scene a few years ago, all fully formed with sharp synth-pop tunes and even sharper tailoring, Manchester duo Hurts seemed set to dominate the pop landscape. For some reason, though, that didn’t happen. Despite songs like ‘Better Than Love’, ‘Wonderful Life’ and ‘Stay’ being […]
Single releases – 10 March Phil Lickley takes us through his pick of this weeks top single releases, featuring new tracks from AlunaGeorge, Hurts, Phoenix, MS MR, Ke$ha, Nicole Scherzinger and more… AlunaGeorge – ‘Attracting Flies’ [rating:3.5/5] Buy: Attracting Flies Following up the addictive ‘Your Drums Your Love’ and their collaboration with Disclosure, ‘Attracting Flies’ […]
Manchester’s foremost 80’s synth-pop revivalists Hurts are releasing their second album Exile soon – next week in fact – and have today made the whole thing available to stream. Check it out below and let me know what you think of it in the comments at the bottom: Via The Guardian Exile is the follow […]
Hurts have released a suitably dramatic video for their bombastic new single ‘Miracle’, which features the pair playing/singing back to back while scantily clad women writhe about in pop video stylee. Check it out: ‘Miracle’ is the first single taken from Hurts’ new album Exile – the follow-up to their very well received debut album […]
Hurts – All I Want for Christmas is New Year’s Day If any of today’s rising stars were capable of making a decent Christmas tune, it’s Hurts. Their fondness for 80’s synths and schmaltzy power balladry is tailor-made for the festive charts – but as ‘All I Want for Christmas is New Year’s Day’ is […]