The sophomore release from Manchester synth-pop duo Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson – trading as Hurts – picks up where their million-selling 2010 debut
Happiness left off, except that they’ve acquired loads of new studio bells and whistles. Produced by the band with Jonas Quant and Dan Grech-Marguerat, their sound hasn’t so much developed as inflated to the point of being ludicrously OTT EMO. WTF?

At their best, Hurts sound like ‘90s-period Depeche Mode (‘Cupid’). At their worst, they sound like a parody of same (‘Mercy’). The album opens with the title track and as the music moodily soars, Hutchcraft intones “Home is where the heart is”. There’s epic, too epic, and waaay too epic.
The lyrics are carelessly cliché-ridden (songs tend to open with lines like “Say a little prayer for me” or “Since the day I left you”). ‘The Road’ is apparently inspired by the post-apocalyptic Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name, and also by J.G. Ballard’s Crash (“The metal wraps itself around your bones/ And when it penetrates you, it feels cold”). But it’s not up to the source material.
While much of Exile feels overblown, there are moments that work well (‘Sandman’, ‘The Crow’). But Hurts have gone far too sonically slick. One of the better tracks is the album closer, entitled ‘Help’.