by Jo-Ann GreenePicking up precisely where Hurt's debut left off, Vol. II is the companion piece, continuation, culmination (call it what you will) of all the group began on Vol. I. In fact, early on, the band originally envisioned this musical corpus if not as a double set, at least as a pair of bookends to be released together. It wasn't to be, and so the two were recorded separately, with time to grow in between. And grow they have, with Vol. II exhibiting a greater maturity, a more coherent sound, and a more self-confident band. Even so, the two sets are closely intertwined, with themes, both lyrical and musical, from the first referenced in the second. Where Hurt go wrong is in treating their fans like idiots, foot-noting the cross-overs in the lyric sheets, whilst simultaneously parading their own superior intellect via references to Bell's Theorem and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal. Hey guys, nobody likes patronizing, clever clogs. ... Read More...