It Hurts so good

TALLINN - The Manchester-based pop band Hurts returns to the Baltics this November. Having recently released their second full-length “Exile,” the stylish and mysterious duo is a crowd favorite on these shores. Now they are back with a new show and new music.
The English synth-pop duo was formed in 2009, and now consists of singer Theo Hutchcraft and synthesist Adam Anderson. Their first two albums, ‘Happiness’ and ‘Exile,’ both reached the top ten in the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Finland.

The duo recorded an amateur music video for a song called “Wonderful Life,” with a female dancer who had responded to an advert in a shop window and was paid 20 British pounds for her time. After uploading the video to their YouTube channel on April 21, 2009, it quickly went viral. The video has since had over 21 million views on YouTube, putting it in the Top 200 Most Watched Videos in the history of the Web site. In July the band was signed to Sony subsidiary RCA Records as well as RCA imprint Major Label Records, run by their old friend Biff Stannard.

Although Theo and Adam had decided to not to do any gigs until they had enough songs, they began to steadily build a fan base throughout 2009 by uploading demos to their Myspace page, and on July 27, they were named Band of the Day by The Guardian. This helped to grow a buzz around the new band, and on Dec. 7, it was announced that they had made the longlist of the Sound of 2010, an annual poll of music critics and industry figures conducted by the BBC. Following spot plays on BBC Radio 1 of “Wonderful Life,” Hurts were invited to record at London’s Maida Vale Studios on Dec. 9 for Huw Stephens’ radio show, where they performed “Illuminated” and “Silver Lining.”

The debut studio album Happiness was released in September 2010, and Hurts soon became a truly modern sensation, since six singles (“Wonderful Life,” “Better Than Love,” “Stay,” “Sunday,” “All I Want For Christmas Is New Year’s Day” and “Illuminated”) from the only at that time album ranked at different European tops; in general these songs were among at least the first ten compositions in Hit Parades of 12 European countries. The number of sold copies goes over one million.

Their promo card shows a slightly distant fashion, from the 1930s, with great melodies that are more characteristic of the 1980s than of nowadays, and a bit gloomy mood brightened by stabbing vocals.
Exile was released on March 8, 2013, achieving a top ten position in ten countries worldwide, debuting at number three in Germany and number nine in the UK. “Blind” was released as the second single, and “Somebody to Die For” followed as the third in July.

Critics compare this work of the duo with “The Second Law of Muse.” But The Guardian, which finds parallels with the guitar sounds of Nine Inch Nails,” stresses that this album is full of personal and original features exciting the contemporary feelings of pop music so high that no another band is as exquisite as Hurts.
Unlike the previous tour, where dramatically dressed dancers followed the duo on stage, on this tour they turned it around and focused on the performance itself, which has only improved the already excellent impression and let people closer to the direct well of emotions, with which Hurts wash over the audience live.

Hurts live:
Nov. 3 – Saku Arena, Tallinn
Nov. 4 – Arena Riga
Nov. 6 – Siemens Arena, Vilnius