So let's not get too bogged down in the hurting when discussing The Hurting, because the album really plays as a series of rather perfect pop songs. Its bleak lyrics are rarely matched with similarly grim musical tones, the exceptions being the almost-dissonant "Ideas as Opiates" (a title directly cribbed from a Janov book) and the genuinely nightmarish but relatively brief "The Prisoner". Otherwise, classics like "Mad World", "Change", "Pale Shelter", and "Suffer the Children" deliver their sad missives in smokey yet entirely pleasurable packaging. In fact, The Hurting is less outwardly challenging than the mega-successful Songs from the Big Chair, which blended its conventional pop tunes with jazzy torch songs ("I Believe"), Hi-NRG ("Mother's Talk"), and icy minimalism ("Listen"). The Hurting is also much more collaborative, with Smith taking a lot more of the lead vocals, though pushing his voice more into a baritone range so that he sometimes sounds a lot like his partner. And if that's Smith playing bass on "Start of the Breakdown", he's a damn underrated bass player!
Mercury/Universal is now rereleasing The Hurting for its fortieth anniversary on half-speed mastered vinyl, which purports to offer better "high frequency response and very solid and stable stereo images" than standard cutting, according to the obi wrapped around the cover and the pretentious gold-stamped "Half Speed Mastering Certificate" included in the sleeve. Frankly, I'm not sure what to make of all the half-speed hype. My half-speed mastered copy of Siouxsie and the Banshees' Through the Looking Glass is plagued with sibilance and the Stones' Exile on Main Street has some bad inner groove distortion, as do some of the entries in Paul McCartney's half-speed mastered vinyl series (RAM sounds fabulous though).
This edition of The Hurting has some inner groove distortion on Side A, but it isn't severe, and there's none to speak of on Side B. Overall, the album sounds excellent, though I'm reluctant to give that half-speed business too much credit based on some of my other experiences. Bass is round and clear and never muddy. Highs are crisp without a trace of sibilance. The stereo picture is pretty wide. The vinyl is perfectly flat and the spindle hole is perfectly centered. As a whole The Hurting sounds extremely nice for a record featuring the oft-quoted, not-very-nice line "The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had."
