It's a shame that this never made sufficient impact in the UK charts at the time. Perhaps it referred back too much to a previous era of synth duos, to stand out as distinct twenty years later. Hurts have gone on to have greater success in Europe than the UK. But nothing they've released seems quite to match the song quality and production glory of this debut single.
Ditto its video. When Hurts got picked up by RCA they completely re did the original video. It was all monumental Modernism and Mediterranean lifestyle with statuesque dancers galore. Whereas the original video looked like it was set and filmed in someone's basement living room. Starkly heightened black and white, exaggerated textures, the fuzzed edges to the film framing, all hiding a lot underneath its stylistic sheen. The background behind composed of carpet tiles and rolls of fibre insulation.
Then there are the two guys. One blank faced on the synth, the other expressionless on the microphone. Oh, and a female friend who they brought in just because they know she can dance. Dressed in a black lace off the shoulder dress. She stares out at nothing, and when called for to gesticulate, her limbs moving wildly in angles to the music. During one pause, you see her pulling down the bottom of her dress, to straighten the hemline. The posed gaucheness of this video really works, it said something quite distinct about Hurst as a group, a mixture of rough and smooth.. The second video version the record company, took elements of the first and threw money at them, but could never hope to capture or improve on. It had an honest rough arty edge, whilst the other was a conventionally stylish bit of slick fakery.
No comments:
Post a Comment