Hurts New Single ‘Miracle’

Rather than just announce their single online to promote their forthcoming second album Exile, Manchester pop duo Hurts decided to utilise the tactic of the local dry cleaners as a way of announcing their return. First they posted out old tape recorders to various journalists with a note telling them to await further instructions. Then a letter arrived from Russia made up of old Hurts lyrics stitched together to make a love letter of sorts. Included with the letter was a dry-cleaning receipt, fully paid, which the recipient had to exchange for a black dinner jacket emblazoned with their new logo on the lapel. In the jacket pocket was a gold tape that included bits of songs from the new album. Beat that, Rihanna, with your plane full of exhausted journalists!

Still, no amount of promotional tomfoolery can disguise the fact that the single Miracle, sounds a lot like Coldplay’s Princess of China, all stadium-size “woah, woah, woahs”. But while they added some sweetness to the mix with a Rihanna guest vocal, Miracle luxuriates in its stylish melancholia as singer Theo throws out lines such as “the light will never shine on this heart of mine” over a Depeche Mode-esque backdrop of stadium guitars and synths. For the video, the pair roam around a disused shopping centre looking mean and moody as various gothic emblems interrupt their sadness.

The new album Exile will be released on 11 March.