Hurts – 'Exile' album review

Hurts – 'Exile'

• Rated as: 2/5

When Hurts broke through in 2010, they seemed fired up by a desire to make chart-friendly pop that didn’t patronise. The duo’s maverick streak – touring with an opera singer and looking perma-styled for an Anton Corbijn shoot – didn’t stop them playing the mainstream with choruses that soared. What a shame then that ‘Exile’s poppy moments have become as lazy and humdrum as ‘Sandman’ – a rehash of Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ with a creepy kids’ choir thrown in. ‘The Road’ may channel Depeche Mode and novelist Cormac McCarthy, but too often the desire to directly rival Muse or U2 makes them sound lost and featherweight in comparison.