There's a reason why you should watch the video for Hurts' debut single 'Wonderful Life' before listening to the song sans visual aids - that's the proverbial hypodermic needle containing the Image they want you to imbibe. The Guardian vaguely fell for it, apparently this is the return of 'clever lad pop' or something, except, hey, it sounds exactly like all the other pop around at the moment, the synthy bassy stuff, the heavy 80s drums, electro, distortion, seven kinds of Korg.
It's maybe a slightly worse Leona Lewis song at best, but it's Hedi Slimane-approved, skinny indie-worthy, harks back to (what the fuck, Paul Lester), "a period when it was OK to namedrop obscure literary texts in interviews and resemble gaunt, starving artistes masquerading as stylish Italian models or actors in pseudo-y French existentialist movies from the 60s".
Except, hey, haven't we moved on from that period and now embraced a slightly less shitty version of existence which is more about making vaguely alright music and not selling some romanticised, black and white, gloomy 80s ideal?
This is hype-mongering beyond, like, anything, ever - the website's painfully minimalist, there is Emphasis on Creating a Brand, but not in the normal shitty corporate way - this is actually self-conscious pretention. This is literally the worst thing ever not because it sucks massively, but because it's smug, swaggering, and has no value that could merit this. Lady Gaga can be arrogant because she did this. Hurts cannot.
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