I used to laugh it off, I used to look the other way

It's been out for, what, half a year now? And yet I've still never been able to figure out what I make of Erik Hassle's soul-voiced but not '60's ballad "Hurtful," insistent drums and all. My stand for most of that time has been that it's missing that spark, that it's not as good as it wants to be. A song that I might grow to like more if I heard it on the radio around here, was exposed to it more and it sunk in. Every now and then, though, I think that I love it, that it's brilliant, interestingly emotional, that it deserves far more attention. And then I won't play it again for a month.