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Mar 19, 2013What's clear about Hurts on Exile is how skilled Hutchcraft and Anderson are at seamlessly incorporating their influences, so you can hear the bands' inspirations in every line even as you marvel that this album is like nothing you've heard before.
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Q MagazineMar 11, 2013Ultimately, there's something delicious and monumental about Hurts.[Apr 2013, p.106]
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Mar 11, 2013It's on close personal terms with magnificence.
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Mar 11, 2013If you’re able to look past the campy facade and accept that this is purely a record of glimmering pop, it’ll be something you’ll cherish.
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Mar 11, 2013Because a grand and fabulous mode of theatre pervades everything about this band, you’re often a few degrees off completely connecting.
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Mar 11, 2013While the relentless realisation of their film-ready stylings may not be to everyone's tastes, the fact they're here at all in the first place is a cause worth celebrating in itself.
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Mar 8, 2013This is a second album that genuinely builds upon its predecessor. Exile reinforces the feeling in modern pop that no other group sounds quite as hurt as Hurts.
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Mar 8, 2013Exile is found wanting when they try too much to be the stadium band rather than allowing the drama to play out.
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Mar 8, 2013Luckily, Hutchcraft and keyboardist Adam Anderson are also endowed with that other pomp-rock characteristic--a gift for striding, anthemic choruses that turn even the most overwrought songs into unshakeable earworms.
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Mar 19, 2013No matter how many dark subjects are nested throughout, too often the music on Exile falls back into the same old tricks of bells-and-whistles pop choruses and obvious hooks.
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UncutMar 12, 2013Sadly, torrid synthesiser and billowing melodrama make it impossible to see any wry glances cast by Exile. [Apr 2013, p.73]
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Mar 27, 2013This is an album that maintains the joyless musical brand Hutchcraft and Anderson crystallised with their two million selling debut.
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Mar 12, 2013A chilling example of naked ambition prioritising production style over songwriting substance.
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Mar 11, 2013The songwriting isn't sturdy enough to hold it all up.
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MojoMar 8, 2013It's more showbiz than authentic, being knee-deep in the kind of epic balladry that wouldn't be out of place at Eurovision. [Apr 2013, p.91]
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Mar 8, 2013Innovation, clearly, is not the highest of their priorities. In truth, everything comes a distant second to style.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 46 out of 55
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Mixed: 7 out of 55
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Negative: 2 out of 55
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Jul 22, 2013
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Mar 16, 2013
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Dec 11, 2016