Scot­tish pop duo Hue And Cry release their 16th stu­dio album: Every­body on May 29. Broth­ers Greg and Pat Kane, who ini­tial­ly rose to fame in the 80s with Labour of Love (and their debut album Seduced and Aban­doned) are back with a set of songs that prove their abil­i­ty to con­tin­ue to shapeshift and evolve their sound.

The new album came togeth­er over two years of exper­i­men­ta­tion, as the duo immersed them­selves in ana­logue and dig­i­tal music tech – Deep­Mind arpeg­gia­tors, hydrasynths, waveta­bles and clas­sic drum machines. The album is mixed by Yoad Nevo (Pet Shop Boys and Duran Duran).

Hue And Cry have long been known for weav­ing their polit­i­cal con­vic­tions into their lyrics, and that com­mit­ment remains intact. How­ev­er, their focus has evolved to reflect the com­plex­i­ties of the mod­ern world, as they turn to address issues such as cli­mate change, social polar­i­sa­tion and a grow­ing sense of powerlessness.

The album’s synth-dri­ven, funk-infused mate­r­i­al explores these themes while con­vey­ing the idea that, despite every­thing, love reigns supreme. As lead vocal­ist Pat Kane explains: “It turns out that Every­body is a love album – but that can mean love of jus­tice, love of tech, love of the future, as much as of our beloveds.”

That pos­i­tive spir­it kicks off the album with Stronger, an ener­getic open­er bub­bling up from some­where deep in its soul. Dri­ven by puls­ing synths and an uplift­ing groove, it sets the tone with its mes­sage of resilience and hope: “let the soft­est kind of pow­er make me stronger.” The mes­sage is rein­forced in the fol­low­ing num­ber Every­body Deserves To Be Loved. And Pat’s dis­tinc­tive bari­tone remains as pow­er­ful as ever.

The strongest track on the album harkens back to 90s house: Make My Day. It’s a catchy, funk-drenched num­ber designed for sum­mer dance floors, its strong vocals and skit­ter­ing, crisp per­cus­sion punch­ing out the beat. 

The mood and pace shift with And Then You Bloom for some­thing more reflec­tive. Dis­solve and Dis­ap­pear stays with the mood before things pow­er up again in a funky direc­tion. One of the high­lights of Every­body is penul­ti­mate track Force Majeure, wrap­ping flut­ter­ing synths around deep orches­tra­tion and show­cas­ing Pat’s steady, soul­ful and expres­sive vocals.

Every­body demon­strates that Hue And Cry remain cre­ative­ly ambi­tious and will­ing to explore new direc­tions. If there’s any crit­i­cism here, it’s in the shape of the tracks. It’s a shame the duo felt the need to con­strict all the songs to, on aver­age, four min­utes long: they could have squeezed a lot more out of some of the com­po­si­tions, coax more out of them and ful­ly let them blos­som. Force Majeure is just one that feels like it has a lot more to give. How­ev­er Pat and Glen’s embrace of tech­nol­o­gy, com­bined with a con­tin­ued com­mit­ment to emo­tion­al­ly hon­est song­writ­ing, gives the album a real warmth and energy.

Every­body track list­ing
Stronger
Every­body Deserves to
Make My Day
And Then You Bloom
Dis­solve and Dis­ap­pear
I Remem­ber
In Our Ruins
Kin­da Blue, Kin­da Love
Force Majeure
10 Bro­ken Gods

Lim­it­ed-edi­tion ulti­mate collector’s box avail­able via Hue And Cry online store with an indi­vid­u­al­ly num­bered cer­tifi­cate. Along­side a hand signed Every­body album on CD, with a unique mar­ble designed 12” Vinyl album; Blu-Ray con­tain­ing Dol­by Atmos audio mix­es of the album; exclu­sive 7” Vinyl with two addi­tion­al tracks; Live At Kelv­in­grove CD album.