I've been really enjoying the new album Faith by the band Hurts that was released last week. In some ways, I see this album as a return to the aesthetics of Hurts' first two albums with some of their darker tones taking more front stage on this album, at the same time eschewing some of the more openly "pop"-oriented tendencies that were demonstrated on their most recent albums Surrender and Desire.
However, this new album also pushes Hurts sound in new directions, such as the track Fractured, with its minimalist sound highlighting its odd percussion noises and whispered vocals. This is one of my favorite songs on the new album.
Crucially, this album also provides some great new tracks in the more traditional Hurts tradition of piano ballads accompanied by cool synthesizer noises: All I Have To Give and Redemption. I've read one review that singles out these two tracks for criticism based on being too traditional, but to me they are just really great and very enjoyable and powerful.
There are a lot of other great new tracks on this album as well, in fact, I really like all of them. I also think that the album flows well in terms of variety and sequencing, peaking with Redemption at track 9, which for me is the absolute highlight of the album, but then still finishing very strongly with its last two tracks.
I would say, at least so far, this album does not seem as good as Exile, which is my favorite Hurts album. However, it is a very strong return to form after a couple of weaker albums - particularly their most recent one, Desire, which I found a little too long and a little too weak in terms of overall strength of songs. In contrast, I really enjoy Faith as a complete album, listening from start to finish with each track offering something exciting to enjoy.
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