Stuff: Happiness (Hurts album)

Hurts are an British synthpop duo from Manchester composed of singer Theo Hutchcraft (originally from Richmond in North Yorkshire) and synth player Adam Anderson.

In July 2009, the band featured as "Band of the Day" on Guardian.co.uk. They finished in fourth position in BBC's Sound of 2010 poll.

Happiness is the debut studio album by English synthpop duo Hurts, released in the United Kingdom on 6 September 2010. It was preceded by the release of the singles "Better Than Love" on 23 May 2010 and "Wonderful Life" on 22 August 2010. The song "Devotion" is a duet with Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue. To promote the release of the album the band made the non-album song "Happiness" available as a free download via Amazon.co.uk on 1 August 2010.
For The Sun's "Biz Sessions", Hurts played Kylie Minogue's "Confide in Me" live.

Happiness received mixed reviews from music critics. It debuted at number four on the UK Albums Chart and topped the Greek Albums Chart. The album peaked at number two in Austria, Germany, Poland and Switzerland. It also peaked within the top ten in Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Sweden.

"Better Than Love" was released as the lead single on 23 May 2010 in the United Kingdom. It spent one week at number fifty on the UK Singles Chart, and charted in Belgium, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.

The second single, "Wonderful Life" was released on 22 August 2010 in the United Kingdom. It was previously released as the band's debut single in Denmark on 3 May 2010. According to lead singer Theo Hutchcraft the song is about two extremes, "the first being a man who wants to kill himself and the second being love at first sight." The song debuted at number twenty-one in the UK, and peaked at number two in Germany. It reached top ten positions in Austria, Denmark and Switzerland.

"Stay" was released as the third single on 15 November 2010, and peaked at number fifty on the UK Singles Chart on November 21, 2010.