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Desire Image
Metascore
61

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 34 Ratings

  • Summary: This is the fourth full-length release for the British synth-pop duo of Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson.
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Top Track

Beautiful Ones
Pick up your phone, put on your coat Everyone's looking up at you Push through the crowd, into the sound Of everyone talking about you Don't be... See the rest of the song lyrics
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 7
  2. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. 90
    Desire is the sound of a group who have thoroughly found themselves and sees them standing supremely confident, whilst retaining elements of older material including “Wonderful Life” and “Miracle”. Seemingly, 2017 is the year of the upbeat indie dance record, and it belongs to Hurts.
  2. Oct 19, 2017
    80
    Hurts have never shied away from grandiose musical gestures, something fans of their deeply emotive live shows and theatrical videos can attest to. With Desire, they've found a way to capture that amorous pop intensity and send it flooding back toward their audience.
  3. Q Magazine
    Sep 29, 2017
    60
    The neverending quest for bangers leads Hurts to lean heavily on foot-stomping choruses to carry songs, but it's to their credit that Desire has a lighter touch than previous albums. [Nov 2017, p.108]
  4. Uncut
    Sep 29, 2017
    60
    Big tunes. Not much heart. [Nov 2017, p.30]
  5. Oct 5, 2017
    50
    It’s a credit to Hurts for stepping outside their comfort zone and aiming high, but the end product feels as though it was rather a struggle. Possibly to gain more exposure, they’ve made what they hope is a radio friendly record, but which all but obliterates that which won them fans in the first place.
  6. Sep 29, 2017
    40
    Desire’s best moments arrive when there’s a genuine attempt to create a bit of atmosphere--the cool strut of ‘Spotlights’ is a rare bright point. Everything else, though, has been done better elsewhere, and recently, too.
  7. Mojo
    Sep 29, 2017
    40
    Only the tart Princely funk of Boyfriend lets light through lacquered layers of modern pop production. [Nov 2017, p.103]
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1