Pop heals all things.

"Wake up in the morning, feeling like Winehouse. Grab my breezer, I'm out the door, I'm gonna be really loud."

- "Tik Tok (feat. St£fan)", The Midnight Beast cover of the Ke$ha single.

I am currently hungover in the extreme. So I take comfort in a band with a name that sums up my present state... Hurts.

New single "Better Than Love" was released today. Human League are alive and well it seems, all spiralling synths and dramatic tenor vocals. Hurts spent so long with a single video on a youtube page and next to no online information, but the sheer goliath of a pop force that was "Wonderful Life" left a nation of 80s enthusiasts gagging for more, they deserve all the attention they get. With each subsequent track the consensus has only been further established: The image is flawless, the sound is era pitch perfect, and the melodrama is irresistable. So here it is, Hurts - Better Than Love.



You know, I was at NME magazine last week, and the lucky bastards had a Hurts promo, a record packed with simple yet incredible music. But apparantly the consensus was that the music was "dire". I listen to a lot of the music they promote, and don't get me wrong, there's some fantastic music in that magazine, but it seems to me that NME, and a lot of the alternative music press, seem to love new, weird and wonderful sounds, but at the expense of a melody and musical chemistry a lot of the time. As the blog says, give pop a chance! Here's a song that probably sends most people running to hurl in the toilet, but personally, I think it's one of the most adorable tunes I've ever heard, and a perfect example of the magic a simple melody can produce. The broken english is pretty sweet too. Bless her.