Review Summary: Rock music perfected, this is a must hear classic masterpiece.
Originality is missing in rock music nowadays, the music is uninspired, and seems a bit lazy. So it is with great pleasure I tell you Hurt's "Goodbye To The Machine" truly breaks the mold. "Goodbye To The Machine" is truly a masterpiece. There is no filler's, every track on this classic record was made with a purpose by their lead singer/songwriter J. Loren Wince.
The opening track, "Got Jealous", is a chilling journey of anger and vengeance. The song soars high and then hits you with a spine chilling melodic acoustic guitar right before throwing you into a whirlwind of emotion and desperation. Which leads into the Tool-esque "Pandora", the violin and bass guitar plays a huge part in another chilling ride of emotion. "Wars", the first single from the cd, is the third track, and can only be described as epic. "World Ain't Right", which features guest vocals from Seether's Shaun Morgan, is an acoustic tragedy based song which reaches out in anger of the world's unfairness. This is a song that has made tears shed from every Hurt fans eyes at one point in their life I'm sure. "Sweet Delilah" is a radio friendly love song that everyone can enjoy, acoustic guitar blanketed in stellar production and one of the cleanest solo's I've heard in a long time all make for a memorable track. "1331", pronounced as "thirteen-thirty-one" is an ode to a fallen hero of J. Loren's childhood, the rythym is as far from normal as it can get, the lyrics are from the heart, which is the case of all Hurt song's but is strikingly evident in "1331" and "Got Jealous".
"Role Martyr X" is a rock song through and through, it is a story about the celebrity role model's and the negative impact they have, along with their hypocrisy. "Well" is an extremely original work of rock art. The instruments and lyrics are mind blowing along with clever usage of the electric guitar. "Pills" is another radio friendly acoustic song, but that is by no means a bad thing, it is quite possibly the best song on the cd, it was written in a day and composed on the same day, it is the second single off the cd and maybe one of the greatest songs of all time. "Dreams Away" is insanely original in it's sound and lyrics, there is absolutely no song like it. "Fighting Tao" is the best pure rock song on the album, reminiscent of "Ten Ton Brick" from Volume II, "Fighting Tao" has everything needed to go down as a classic, as well as a violin solo by J. Loren. "That (Such A Thing)" is a soft song that captures the emotion of heartbreak as well as anything you've heard, it is a masterpiece in its own right.
The hidden track now known as "Flowers" is an Irish drinking song thrown in to make you laugh and also to see another dimension to this relatively unknown band. If you enter the code given to you with the cd, you are able to download a bonus track entitled "Another Time", this song is simply amazing, the quality is no less than any of the songs that made the cut.
Goodbye To The Machine was recorded using the analog process, anyone who knows what that means should automatically be impressed, this is the method used before autotools and requires insane talent to make a song perfect, because you only have one take, and there is no editing option. So this is basically a live cd, which showcases the limitless talent of Hurt.
If you want to hear an album that will not reach the masses, yet deserves mass attention and credit, Goodbye To The Machine is a perfect cd for you. You will not be dissapointed by anything on this album. Hurt has cemented their status as a frontrunner in rock music by delivering the greatest rock album of the year, and one of the best of all time.
