Hurt's Exile best heard loud

Hurts's new album Exile features vast but vibrant anthems that will sound mighty fine blaring from some building-sized speakers this summer.

Si Hawkins

March 12, 2013

  • English
  • Arabic

Hurts
Exile
(Sony)
****

"Home, it's where the heart is," sings Theo Hutchchraft, opening Hurts' second album in an unpromisingly clichéd if rather apt fashion. The UK synth-pop duo have enjoyed the decadent trappings of the on-tour pop-star life since the surprise success of their 2010 debut, Happiness, but returned to a cramped flat in Manchester's famous 'curry mile' to record this follow-up.

The result is a heady fusion of their two worlds, a record aimed squarely at huge live stages and thus armed with consistently immediate choruses throughout, but also a growing sense of industrial grind and gloom.

Hutchcraft and his synth-wielding colleague, Adam Anderson, cite Nine Inch Nails as one of their recent influences, and Exile's second half often mirrors that more ominous strand of stadium rock, particularly via the heavy breathing and warped guitars of The Cupid.

Even the catchiest pop song here, Blind, has a curiously sinister underbelly, as Hutchcraft implores a loved-one to "cut out my eyes." Generally they achieve the required balance though: vast but vibrant anthems that will sound mighty fine blaring from some building-sized speakers this summer.

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Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion

The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.

Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".

The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.

He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.

"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.

As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.

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