Tracks...

Tracks time:

SOTD...

The second Christmas song of the month is courtesy of British duo Hurts.

"All I Want For Christmas Is New Years Day" was released in 2010, after the success of their debut album. Excellent track and pretty good video as well.

Artwork Hurts...

The artwork for the new Hurts album, Exile, which is released on March 11th. Hopefully it will be as good as their debut album.

And here is the video for the first single, "Miracle":



UPDATE:

Apperantly there were some elements (especially the burning crucifixes) that were deemed too controversial. The video is being re-edited.

Exile Hurts...

Hurts have announced the tracklisting for their new album Exile. 

The duo's second studio album will contain 12 tracks including their new single "Miracle". The set follows the band's debut album Happiness, which peaked at number two on the charts in 2010 and  spawned the hit singles "Better Than Love", "Wonderful Life", "Stay" and "Sunday".

Exile, which is out on March 11, is preceded by "Miracle" on March 10. A 12-date UK and European tour throughout March and April will coincide with the release.

Tracklist:

1. Exile

2. Miracle

3. Sandman

4. Blind

5. Only You

6. The Road

7. Cupid

8. Mercy

9. The Crow

10. Somebody To Die For

11. The Rope

12. Help

Exile...

Hurts have announced details of their new album.

Exile marks the duo's second studio LP. It will be released on March 11, 2013.

The group have also released a teaser video for the record, which features new track 'The Road'.

Exile follows up their 2010 debut Happiness, which entered the UK album chart at number four and has sold over two million copies worldwide.

The LP spawned hit singles 'Better Than Love', 'Wonderful Life', 'Stay' and 'Sunday'.

Hurts announced details of a 12-date European tour earlier this week, which kicks off in London on February 7 before heading to Berlin, Munich and Prague.

SOTD...

The lovely Jon posted a tribute on his blog yesterday to Falco, who would have turned 55 yesterday (he died in a car accident in 1998). Worldwide he was best known for his massive hits "Rock Me Amadeus" and "Der Kommisar". While I love these tracks, my favourite Falco song has always been this one.



"Jeanny" was very controversial when it was released just before christmas in 1985.

The song is about a relationship between a man and a girl named Jeanny. Severl critics said that the song glorifies rape and violence. An outcry in German language markets caused the song to be banned by some radio broadcasters or played with a preceding warning by others.

Several feminist associations also called for a boycott of the song. Some TV and radio stations in West Germany agreed and didn't play the song "for ethical reasons". In East Germany the song could not be played on radio - it was even banned from the nightclubs!

Typically, the scandal only helped to increase the sales of the single, which went # 1 in Germany and many other countries in Europe.

The lyrics don't actually contain any direct reference to the act of rape or abduction. It is left to the listener's imagination. Of course the controversial video only added gasoline to to flames.
Falco argued that it is about the musings of a stalker.

The song became the first part of a trilogy, with the songs "Coming Home (Jeanny Part 2, One Year Later)" and "The Spirit Never Dies (Jeanny Final") also becoming big hits.

Here is the (excellent and quite weird video):





And here is a cover/tribute version released last year on the 25th Anniversary edition of the album the single came from - by Hurts!

Extended Happiness...

To coincide with their biggest tour to date, Hurts will release an extended deluxe version of Happiness on 31st October.

The album will features all of their B-sides and rarities, including live favourites Happiness and All I Want for Christmas Is New Year’s Day, both of which have been previously unavailable on CD.

Happiness Deluxe will also feature the original demo versions of Sunday and Devotion.
The album will also feature the live DVD ‘Hurts – Live in Berlin’. Recorded at the bands recent show at Berlin’s Zitadelle Spandau and streamed online to more than 100,000 people last month, it was one of the band’s biggest shows of the summer.

The DVD also features all of the music videos for the singles, including the previously online only Blood, Tears & Gold and the original version of Wonderful Life.



The full tracklisting is as follows:

CD:
1. Silver Lining
2. Wonderful Life
3. Blood, Tears & Gold
4. Sunday
5. Stay
6. Illuminated
8. Better Than Love
7. Evelyn
9. Devotion
10.Unspoken
11.The Water
12. Verona
13. Affair
14. Happiness
15. Mother Nature
16. Confide In Me
17. Sunday (Demo)
18. Devotion (Demo)
19. All I Want for Christmas is New Year’s Day

DVD:
Hurts - Live In Berlin:

1. Silver Lining
2. Wonderful Life
3. Happiness
4. Blood Tears and Gold
5. Evelyn
6. Sunday
7. Verona
8. Unspoken
9. Mother Nature
10. Devotion
11. Confide in Me
12. Illuminated
13. Stay
14. Gloomy Sunday
15. Better Than Love

Music videos:

1. Blood Tears & Gold
2. Wonderful Life (original)
3. Better Than Love
4. Wonderful Life
5. Stay
6. Sunday
7. Illuminated
8. All I want for Christmas is New Year’s Day

 Sounds like a fantastic release - and an absolute must have for moi!

Art...

The brand new artwork for Hurts forthcoming double A-side single ‘Illuminated/ Better than love' has been revealed. It looks very different from the artwork for the previous singles, but I still like it... Hopefully we will get a new video as well.

Confirmed...

Hurts have confirmed their next single release. It will be a double A-side of "Illuminated" and "Better Than Love". It will be released as a CD single and a 7".




"Better Than Love" was released as their very first single in May 2010. It peaked at number 50 on the UK singles chart and number 6 on the dance chart. Here is the video:



No word yet on if there will be a new video, or if there will be a video for the amazing "Illuminated" (there really needs to be a video!).

Hurts won the Best International Newcomer Award this week at the Echo Awards. They also performed at the event.

Illuminated/Better Than Love Tracklist:

Digital Bundle:
1. Better Than Love (original)
2. Better Than Love (Freemasons remix)
3. Better Than Love (Death in Vegas remix)
4. Better Than Love (Burns remix)
5. Illuminated (Original)

7” vinyl:
1. Illuminated (album version)
2. Better Than Love (album version)

I guess the CD single will be the same as the 7"...

Wonderful Way...

Hurts were not very happy with the outcome of their concert last Sunday in Reykjavik, where the the electricty on the sound system they were using went off TWICE. As a result, the concert had to be cut short.

You can see what happened during "Evelyn":

 





The group has now released a statement regarding the incident:

Beautiful people of Iceland.

Thank you for your support and for welcoming us so warmly. Iceland is one of the most beautiful places in the world and the people the most beutiful.

We couldnt wait to come back and say thanks after we filmed the video for "Stay" in Vik and got such great response when we played Airwaves.

Unfortuneatly we had electrical problems during our concert on Sunday so we were forced to cut the show short. We were sad and annoyed about this, but the audience saved the show with their love and happiness. You managed to make this a night we will never forget.

We apologise for the problems and we have already started to plan another concert as soon as possible. Maybe then we will never leave Iceland.

Thank you for everything. Viva Ísland.

Hurts



 The statement in Icelandic as it was delivered to the Icelandic press:

„Fallega fólk á Íslandi.


Takk fyrir að hvetja okkur til dáða og bjóða okkur velkomna af öllu hjarta. Ísland er einn fallegasti staður í heimi og fólkið það fallegasta.


Við gátum ekki beðið eftir því að koma aftur og þakka fyrir okkur eftir að við tókum upp myndbandið við Stay í Vík og fengum frábærar viðtökur á Airwaves.


Því miður stríddi rafmagnið okkur á tónleikunum á sunnudaginn þannig að við neyddumst til að stytta þá. Við vorum leiðir og pirraðir yfir þessu en áhorfendur björguðu tónleikunum með ást sinni og taumlausri gleði. Þið náðuð að gera þetta að kvöldi sem við munum aldrei gleyma.


Við biðjumst afsökunar á vandræðunum og erum byrjaðir að skipuleggja aðra tónleika eins fljótt og mögulegt er. Kannski munum við þá aldrei fara aftur frá Íslandi.
Takk fyrir allt. Viva Ísland, Hurts."



Complete class act! Wonderful way to handle to whole thing, and fantastic to hear that they are already planning another concert to make up for what happened, although it wasnt even their fault. Hopefully things will turn out better then - I still need to hear "Illuminated", "Better Than Love" and the beautiful "The Water" live!



http://visir.is/hurts--kaerleiksrik-kvedja-thratt-fyrir-misheppnada-tonleika/article/2011110329701

Triumph & Disaster...

I went to see the wonderful Hurts in concert last night. The opening acts (some dreadful Icelandic groups) were supposed to come on at 20:00, so we decided to show up at 21:00, hoping they would be just about to finish. Unfortuneatly Hurts didnt come on stage until after 22.00. When they finally did, they were fantastic! Opening up with "Unspoken", they did several songs in the next 30 minutes or so (including "Wonderful Life", which they did very early in the set, and I swear that both "Silver Lining" and "Blood, Tears And Gold" sounded better live then on the actual album).



However, in the middle of a song the sound system crashed! Theo got the crowd to sing the chorus of "Evelyn" a few times, before he and Adam, along with their band left the stage. Around 15 minutes later things had been fixed and they returned to the stage to do a thunderous verison of "Sunday".



They continued the gig with tracks like "Devotion" and mentioned that they had done that track with Kylie, who "sadly they couldnt bring with them". They then introduced "their favourite song ever" - a fantastic version of Kylie's "Confide In Me". Theo then mentioned that they had never had a problem like this with a sound system before, and then they then launched into what may very well be my favourite Hurts song (and according to Music Week, their next single): the stunning "Illuminated". However, they only managed to to the first verse: and the sound system crashed again! A visibly furious Adam stormed backstage, followed by Theo and the band.

About 10-15 minutes later they returned to the stage again. Theo was wrapped in the Icelandic flag, saying that sadly the would only be able to do one more song beacuse of all the problems. He mentioned that they had filmed the video for "Stay" here, and how much they love the country and the people here. They then performed the song - and that was that. Theo later posted on his Twitter:

Iceland! Oh Iceland! A triumph & a disaster. Sorry & thank you. A wild & wonderful time as always. One of the greatest places on earth. ást!

It was a real shame how the evening turned out. Thank god we showed up late - but we still had to wait almost 90 minutes for the band to show up, and then they only played for less then an hour because of all the problems (which were clearly the promoters fault). Hurts were fantastic though (much better then they seem on the videos. They were not shot by me BTW - we were much closer to the stage).

Not hearing "Illuminated" was a big disapoinment, and also missing out on tracks like "Better Than Love".  I hope I will be able to see them again - and hopefully in a concert where the promoters know what they are doing! A sound system that crashed not once but TWICE in an hour is beyond unprofessional and I felt very bad for the group when we left. I'd say the whole thing was worth it though, because they were VERY good - but the promoters should offer partial refunds or something! I will need to catch Hurts again in the future... Here is an older performance of "Illuminated":

Tracks...

Some tracks I like right now:

Different?...

Hurts have revealed that their next album will be "very different" to their current one.

The duo, who released their debut LP Happiness in September last year, said that they have starting thinking about a follow-up, which will be influenced by their current European tour.

Discussing their next record, Theo Hutchcraft said: "We've started thinking about it but it's a bit too early be specific at the moment. One thing we realised when touring is that we want make a record that will give a great live show.

"We made our last album while sitting in a dark room and we didn't think about how the songs would translate on stage. I think second album will factor that side of things in a lot more."

The group also admitted that the success of the album across Europe will affect the lyrical content of the next LP.

"Our first record is about us before our success," Hutchcraft explained. "What we don't want to do is make one of those annoying second albums that talk about how hard it is to be famous.

"It will be very different, because some of the songs on this album we could never write now. We could certainly never write a 'Wonderful Life' again because we're not in that frame of mind anymore."

He added: "We find it cathartic to make sad music, and it's in our personalities to do it, so we'll see. Maybe it'll be more depressing."



Their last single 'Stay' peaked at number 50 on the UK charts, and the duo admits that they hoped to score higher positions with their singles, after gaining a string of top ten hits across Europe.

"The album went gold before Christmas, which was a massive surprise, because it's kind of bubbled under really.

"There's nothing nicer than to be accepted by the place you're from, and we can see in our shows that people are starting to really connect with us now."

Asked if they were underwhelmed by the response to their singles, Adam Anderson admitted: "I am. We both grew up thinking the charts were important - I used to love watching Top Of The Pops. Even as an adult now I care about where we end up charting. It would have been nice to chart higher."

Hutchcraft added: "In a different world and different era things might have been different. We write pop songs, but ironically in the UK urban music is more popular, so we're like the black sheep."

Hurts release their new single "Sunday" on February 27.

Videos...

The video for Michael Jackson's latest single 'Hollywood Tonight' has just been filmed in LA.

Shot in Hollywood, the Teddy Riley-produced track is the second single to be released from the the icon's first posthumous LP Michael, which was released back in December.

The video is lead by a female dancer whose look and outfit have been based on the King of Pop himself. Footage shows 60 or more dancers performing an MJ-inspired routine, as seen in a behind-the-scenes video posted on TMZ.

And in other video news: the video for Lady Gaga´s "Born This Way" is set to debut next Monday. And here is the brand new video from Hurts: