On February 25, the world got a new album by Tears For Fears. The Tipping Point is the band’s seventh studio album, and not surprisingly, it is very good.

Tears For Fears don't have a single poor album. My favorite TFF albums continue to be The Hurting (1983) and Elemental (1993). I also defend Everybody Loves A Happy Ending (2004), with its powerful Brian Wilson style production. I knew Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, our boys from Bath, wouldn't come back with a studio album unless they had something important to say. I didn’t realize that they have been actively playing shows since 2004. They stepped-up their live shows and set list for a lot of outdoor, warm weather UK shows in the years before the pandemic. Both Curt and Roland have personal things to air out on this possible final album. There are some beautiful moments on The Tipping Point, and I would rank it along with Sowing The Seeds Of Love (1989) and Raoul And The Kings Of Spain (1995) as a solid, contemplative TFF album.

In 1990, I read stories saying that these guys were done. Curt wanted out of the band before the Seeds Of Love tour even began. But here we are 31 years later with 4 more albums, bringing the total to 7. Seeing the TFF songbook expand to nearly 100 songs is a great achievement. Not bad for two men who were seen as more sensitive and sadder than their contemporaries Duran Duran, XTC, The Psychedelic Furs, Talk Talk and Simple Minds, who filled arenas with their thoughtful, romantic pop.

I wasn’t going to do a ranked list. This is not a music blog. I don’t do rankings. But screw it! Let’s do this!

Here are all 7 Tears For Fears studio albums, ranked how I, Mister Sterling, see them.

Oh, but first! Something has to be acknowledged. A lot of their material is inspired by the late American psychologist, Arthur Janov, specifically his book, The Primal Scream and his development of primal therapy. Considering that Dr. Janov became a bit of a celebrity psychologist to famous people like John Lennon, I have a theory as well. I don’t think highly of Freudian theory, and primal theory was a revival of that. But I acknowledge that in the 1970s and 1980s, that second look at Freud helped inspire some good art and art criticism. I had a professor who made me view Italian Neorealism through a Freudian lens, and it proved to add a layer of entertainment and discussion, and very little else.

Since Roland Orzabal has written songs either adjacent to or inspired by The Primal Scream, we can conclude that the book had a profound influence on his life. The Primal Scream inspired the band’s name, and most of the tracks on their debut album. (Interestingly it didn’t inspire Shout - that’s just a good protest song).

I notice two things. First, we all go through phases of being influenced by media (the smart among us, anyway). The Primal Scream is the big bang that gave us Tears For Fears, but it didn’t remain the inspiration for their songs after their first two albums. Second, flawed inspiration or not, it set the tone for Tears For Fears as an emotionally-charged band. Some of their songs make me and millions of others cry. These boys broke from the chains of English society in which young men are seen and not heard (and girls fare even worse, of course). These boys were going to put their feelings out there. They presented themselves as university students in sweaters (“jumpers” as the British call them). Visually they looked like conformists, but they were anything but. They were and remain understated, sensitive rebels, much like their contemporary from Manchester, Morrissey. And well, isn’t that very English?

7. The Tipping Point (2022)

Wait, didn’t I just say that The Tipping Point is very good? It is. It’s also the album in the band’s discography I don’t see myself going back to often. Like I wrote above, Roland and Curt wouldn’t record new songs unless they had something important to say. Tears For Fears is a project that juxtaposes memorable well crafted music with serious, sometimes depressing subject matter. As usual, it’s Roland who has the most to share, as he is the primary lyricist on all TFF albums. On Tipping Point, he brings at least three (and arguably four) songs about his late wife, Caroline, to whom he was married for nearly 35 years.

There is not a bad song on this, or any Tears For Fears album. That can be a problem if you are trying to rank them. But The Tipping Point is mainly a personal affair. Roland has important things he wants to air out. Rivers Of Mercy and Please Be Happy form the emotional core of this album. I think Rivers Of Mercy is fantastic.

The most fun track on the album is My Demons. They could have leaned into a more 80s synth sound, but that would have made the song trendy. This final version will hold up.

The title track, which was released in September 2021, was a clear signal that Tears For Fears were not messing around. After touring together off and on since 2004 or so, it was time to record some new songs. This is a great song, true to the band’s roots.

The pair have said that there were more songs recorded with up and coming producers dating back to 2019 or so, but Roland and Curt rejected most of them. I’d be curious to know how those sounded. Maybe they have some remnants that can go into an eighth album. They are not done yet.

6. The Seeds Of Love (1989)

This album has two great songs: Woman In Chains and Advice For The Young At Heart. But I rank it low, because again. when I judge a discography this strong, some good albums aren’t going to make my top three.

In August 1989 this album’s lead single blazed across FM radio stations and on MTV. The band’s third studio album belongs to a shortlist of albums that were made to show off the CD format. Albums like Brothers in Arms and So were big sellers in the relatively new format, as was Songs From The Big Chair and this album.

Even though the production of this album was aimed for pristine CD sound, every album by Tears for Fears is under 51 minutes. This allows all of their albums to be pressed on a standard, two sided vinyl LP. And The Seeds Of Love was arranged with this in mind. It has four songs on each side, with side B being the less commercial side. But make no mistake, this whole album is a blend of two styles of pop. First, it is a Brian Wilson-inspired sound that brings Tears For Fears close to the sound of The Beatles, The Beach Boys and XTC (who had their sonically bright album Oranges And Lemons that same year).

But, second, let’s tackle the core of this album. This is the band’s ‘quiet storm’ album. Side B has moments that sound like Sade (her band, which is also called Sade). There are also elements soul, such as the self deprecating Bad Man’s Song on Side A. That piece was inspired by Orzabal overhearing tour crew members speaking very negatively of him.

The Seeds Of Love has a magnificent soundstage. You want to play this on a high end home system, through wood and Kevlar speakers that themselves recreate the big stage. The album sounds like a live performance.

It has to be said that Side A is just about perfect. Tears For Fears being the downers that they are, the album begins with Woman In Chains, which is one of their very best tracks. It was the second single from the album. Phil Collins delivers a restrained performance on drums and the song introduces the world to the voice of Oleta Adams. I know exactly where I was in my life when I first saw this video on MTV in November 1989.

Bad Man’s Song, the second track on the album, is very complex. It starts as a jazz track, with piano and drums, then abruptly shifts to country style with the opening verse. And then it settles to a blend of jazz, soul and even some gospel. You have to wait for the hook. But by the time you get to it, the song is in full Quiet Storm mode; a blend of soul and jazz. It’s weird and good. Just listen to that production and mix.

Go big or go home with the lead single. Sowing The Seeds Of Love is the third track. Very few songs to ever reach the top of the Billboard Hot 100 are this layered, big sounding and complex. In terms of similar songs from the same year, I like XTC’s King For A Day and even Elvis Costello’s Veronica better. But this song is a lush, retro mid-60s style hit number one in the USA the same year Madonna, Richard Marx, Janet Jackson and Bobby Brown topped the same Hot 100 chart.

I will point out that Sowing The Seeds Of Love wasn’t entirely alone at the top of the charts that year. Good Thing by Fine Young Cannibals had a retro, early 1960s style.

The final song on Side A, and third single from the album, Advice For The Young At Heart, is a jazz song. It’s also another songwriting triumph. It’s beautiful. And it could have been the last single from the band, or the last single to have Curt on lead vocals. Miraculously it was neither.

The production of Seeds Of Love cost more than twice what the boys expected. They went through three producers, including their friend Chris Hughes, who had produced Songs From The Big Chair. In the end they re-recorded the album themselves, self-produced in their own studio. The final cost was over £1 Million. In today’s dollars, that’s over £2.5 Million. You can hear the money.

5. Everyone Loves A Happy Ending (2004)

This is the previous time Roland and Curt got together in the studio to make a final statement. That’s now 18 years ago, and a new final statement is available for the world to listen. In a way, this album a direct sequel to The Seeds Of Love, thanks to its wonderful, lush production inspired by Brian Wilson and The Beatles. Perhaps Roland decided to make a bright pop album to celebrate the return of Curt. Or maybe he thought that The Seeds Of Love deserved a sequel. But, as we shall see, he took Tears For Fears to exciting new places with the two albums he led on his own. This album was a return to a 1960s sound, but my no means a regression.

I think most fans like this album, but don’t love it. I myself haven’t memorized the title of every song. But what I do know is that it is a more complete album than The Seeds Of Love. The themes and musical styles come together better, and it’s more consistent. It was made under the assumption that it could be their last studio album (hence, the “ending.”). Roland was tired of label executives asking him to reunite with Curt. Over the years, they continued to meet with their lawyers and accountants for business reasons, like signing legal papers, and reviewing royalties and revenue sharing. Eventually, they started talking to each other, and the musical partnership resumed, and that’s the happy ending the label and fans wanted.

Orzabal stuck with producer Tim Palmer, making this their third consecutive Tears For Fears album together. This means that Curt was rejoining a band that changed its studio and production team two years after he left it.

I remember spinning the CD the day it was released, and it was a tense listen. I didn’t want one of my favorite bands to release a poor album when they didn’t have to release an album at all. The music critics at the time were fawning over The White Stripes and Interpol. Tears For Fears could have just done a greatest hits tour. But they gave us a new album that was better than The Seeds Of Love. The backing personnel had changed since 1989, but Roland and Curt continued to mature and grow as artists.

This album demands a full play, start to finish. It features bright songs that evoke movement, and feature a lot of guitar and drums. For example, I really like Killing With Kindness. I’m sure the boys like Thomas Dolby, but Killing With Kindness includes the line, “Don’t blind them with science.” I get a kick out of that reference to a fellow New Wave artist.

The brightest and perhaps best song on the album is Call Me Mellow. Here, Orzabal and company nail that mid 1960s sound they had been chasing. This is beautiful and a bit psychedelic. Keen musicians will also note that there is a harmony of G, D, C# in the chorus, much like There She Goes by the La’s. Roland is transparent in his borrowing, but he backs it up with well composed and arranged music.

Secret World is yet another bright mid-1960s style song, complete with a horn section. The band continue to play this live in 2022. I think what makes this album so good is that all the songs have good structure. They have memorable choruses, good bridges, and are all under 6 minutes long.

On Size Of Sorrow, we get a solid Tears For Fears song. This could have been a track off of Roland’s albums from the previous decade. It’s a melancholy song about the band. They “borrow” styles from artists who came before. They know they can’t match their “high wire” days of 1985 to 1989. Yeah, this is about them.

Ladybird is a great, sad number about aging, I think. It’s very XTC with its Beatles sound and powerful chorus:

Ladybird fly away our friends are gone
Ladybird fly away our house is on fire

That chorus was written by Curt well before he rejoined the band. He presented it to Roland Orzabal and Chris Hughes, and Roland had the verses done in just a few hours.

Curt borrowed from the classic, dark English nursery rhyme, Ladybird Ladybird:

Ladybird, ladybird fly away home,

Your house is on fire and your children are gone

The album’s closer is appropriately titled Last Days On Earth. I think it has a groovy 1970s soul bass line. I certainly thought this was finally the end. Roland and Curt were well into their forties. But they were friends again, or at least working partners. This felt like closure.

4. Raoul And The Kings Of Spain (1995)

I like to think of Tears For Fears in the 1990s as being a band in exile. Curt has left the band and is living in Los Angeles. Most fans have put their cassettes and CDs into a bookcase and have moved on, listening to grunge, “alternative,” or adult contemporary tunes. Roland took his time to build a home studio and retained rights to use the Tears For Fears name (sort of a Roger Waters situation, but if Waters actually recorded and toured as Pink Floyd after 1983). I had no idea if the door for Curt to return was open or closed. And probably neither did Roland. He just carried on and did exactly what he did on The Seeds Of Love. He hired a band. He produced and arranged the music. He let his influences guide him through two albums.

Raoul And The Kings Of Spain is the second of those albums, recorded in 1994 and released in 1995 with the same personnel as Elemental (1993). This is a very personal album for Roland -his most personal until The Tipping Point (2022). He explores his Spanish and Basque heritage (on his father’s side). Don’t expect many happy songs with hooks here. Roland looks inward here. But some of the songs are simply gorgeous.

God’s Mistake has the chorus, “Love is God’s mistake.” Not pulling punches on this catchy number. Notice how Roland was at his vocal peak. He could almost make himself sound like Curt. The lyrics include the words paradigm and pantomime. I don’t think you’ll find those words together in any other song.

Sketches Of Pain. It's Folk and country in style, with a strong dose of flamenco. The title is a play on “Sketches Of Spain,” perhaps?

Secrets totally fits as a Tears For Fears song, both lyrically and musically.

And the album closes with the magnificent Me And My Big Ideas. It has lament, reflection, humility, and the return of Oleta Adams, who Orzabal was working with on her solo albums in the 1990s. When I heard this track, I thought this was the end of the band. It was yet another perfect final album track.

Oh, this album ends with a reprise of a song that appears earlier on the album - Los reyes Católicos. What was that I said about filler and artists highlighting their own work? Still fine. I rank this album high for having a huge heart.

3. Elemental (1993)

Elemental continues to stun me as a near perfect pop album. This is also the album that made me a Tears For Fears fan, after 8 years resisting them. I was working as an unpaid intern at WBCN radio in Boston when this album came out. Of the six or so DJs who worked the classic late 80s/early 90s rotation at that station, one of them, Mark Parenteau, recommended the new Tears For Fears album more than once on-air. Tears For Fears had no chance of being played on WBCN in 1993. Songs in heavy rotation during my first few weeks at the station included Pets, Creep, the other Creep, Plush, and No Rain. But by the end of that summer, the two new CDs I wanted to bring with me for my third year at University were Robert Plant’s Fate Of Nations, and this one (oh, and Songs Of Faith And Devotion by Depeche Mode!).

What makes Elemental a triumph? Roland Orzabal took full control. He wasn’t going to bend to trends or what was hot in pop music in 1992. He was going to ignore techno, trance and grunge. He knew the new album would struggle to go gold (which it did). He knew MTV wasn’t going to play any videos. And he knew that it was too soon for people to want to hear his songs from the 1980s (except, apparently, the audience in Bogotá, which depressed him). So he assembled an all new band and production team, led by Alan Griffiths and Tim Palmer. The latter mixed Pearl Jam’s debut album and became a fine producer himself starting with Elemental.

This album has peaks and valleys. It takes us somewhere. It has payoffs. I won’t link to every track, but anyone who likes Tears For Fears who has never listened to this album needs to sit down and give it a chance. It’s every bit as good as the albums that follow it in my ranking. This is the Tears For Fears podium -the top three.

The first three songs set the tone. This is the new Tears For Fears, and it’s on these tracks you clearly notice Curt is not there. But Roland’s electric guitars are back for the first time since Songs From The Big Chair.

The following three songs bring things down to a simmer, but they are still all very good. Notably, Fish Out Of Water is about Curt leaving the band. Roland even included it in the Elemental tour set list. Curt really took that jab well. He has said on numerous occasions that he found it funny. What a good sport. The guy has had to deal with Roland’s dominating personality and excessive creative control for decades.

The seventh track, Gas Giants, is a bass-synth heavy instrumental that signals the album’s final third. And what follows are three songs, two of which are among my very favorites from Tears For Fears.

Power is a power pop song about, well, power. And while the lyrics dance around the topic, I think it’s a highlight of the TFF songbook. Just when you thought this album was winding down, it hits you with this.

The Goodnight Song is a great country song about performing music live in front of an audience. That’s both corny and on the nose for a final song on an album. But there is a reason so many people think that not only is this a great Tears For Fears song, but it’s an underrated highlight of the 1990s. It’s wonderfully made, has a hook, and a guitar solo closes it. In this final track, I think Roland was trying to sound like Curt in the second verse. He had me fooled for a moment.

When the new Tears For Fears hit the road in the summer of 1993, songs were already written for the next album, Raoul And The Kings Of Spain. Orzabal would simply have the same crew reconvene in his studio to record the next album. Tears For Fears the band was not just alive, it was going thorough the busiest period of its existence. Roland was driving this bus, and he delivered two albums, one of which might be his career peak.

2. The Hurting (1983)

The Hurting is a bold debut album. The Hurting is as much a pop album than a depressing diary of a young man. It arguably has breakup songs, or perhaps those songs are about being abandoned by one’s parents (“you don’t give me love”). But it doesn’t have a single love song. It’s a downer, and it’s my favorite Tears For Fears album.

I’m a closeted goth. No, the music isn’t goth. But how can I not love this album? It is such a downer.

Recorded in 1982 and released in 1983, The Hurting is a snapshot of two young men and their nation in a particularly bleak moment in time. It is the time of Thatcherism, a made-up word with a very real history behind it. It’s the history of austerity being sold to people as an improvement over a previous political regime. But the austerity actually brought more sadness and social destruction. This is the backdrop of The Hurting.

At the age of 20 or 21, living in a flat above a pizzeria, probably lying on his bed or sofa, an unemployed Roland Orbazal wrote these extraordinary lyrics while watching people walk and drive by.

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head, I wanna drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very, very
Mad world, mad world

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy birthday, happy birthday
And I feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen

Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello, teacher! Tell me, what's my lesson?
Look right through me, look right through me

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very, very
Mad world, mad world

Enlarging your world
Mad world

This is their first single. Curt sang the vocals. They had low expectations. Mercury, the record label, had low expectations. At least the label hired Depeche Mode’s director to shoot the music video. This song went to to number three on the UK pop chart on Halloween, 1982! Number three! And it stayed there for three weeks, not far from smash hits like Pass The Dutchie, and Do You Really Want To Hurt Me (both of which went to number one!). A note about those: New Wave included some reggae and both of those chart toppers are reggae songs. Eddie Grant’s Electric Avenue would be released just weeks later.

And with that, Tears For Fears was born.

The Hurting is equal parts finished songs and equal parts experimental or undercooked songs. But collectively it is a landmark album and quite listenable. The boys and their producer couldn’t replicate an electronic band like Depeche Mode or Yazoo, but we hear them trying a few different things.

Curt Smith was given signing duties for the most catchy songs, Mad World, Pale Shelter and Change. But there isn’t a single happy song on this album.

When you don't give me love (You gave me pale shelter)
You don't give me love (you give me cold hands)
And I can't operate on this failure
When all I want to be is
Completely in command

The Hurting is one of the greatest debut albums of all time. It launched Tears For Fears into a most crowded market of New Wave artists. U2, Simple Minds, Talk Talk, Duran Duran, INXS, The Psychedelic Furs, Echo & the Bunnymen, Missing Persons, REM, Depeche Mode, Talking Heads, The Human League, Heaven 17, The Cure, OMD, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, A Flock Of Seagulls, Thompson Twins, Adam Ant, XTC, Eurythmics, Gary Numan, Culture Club, The Police and so many others were already established. Most were already on their second or third albums (or more). But we consider Tears For Fears to be in that class. They (and Erasure, I guess) got in towards the end of the “Second British invasion.”

And yet (yet!) The Hurting is not even the best debut album of 1983. Incredible! That title goes to The Script Of The Bridge by The Chameleons. A very crowded market, indeed.

I love the long synth and drum machine outro to Memories Fade. This ends side A.

The Hurting LP is 10 songs, with 5 songs per side. Side B is pretty damn serious and shows a songwriter who is more mature than his age suggests. Suffer The Children is sung to a parent, presumably older than Orzabal. Maybe his single mom. It has perhaps the best written and sung chorus on the album.

And all this time he's been getting you down
You ought to pick him up when there's no one around
And convince him
Just talk to him
'cause he knows in his heart you won't be home soon
He's an only child in an only room
And he's dependent on you
Oh he's dependent on you

That’s Orbazal’s wife Caroline singing the La La La part.

With the next track, Watch Me Bleed, the doom doesn’t stop.

It’s important to finish strong. I think Roland lives by this rule, because The Start Of The Breakdown might be the best composition on the album, and includes either a grand piano or a piano synth (a Roland Jupiter? A Prophet T8?) a real drum kit, and an extended instrumental section with a drum solo to close it. The song is about Roland’s father, who physically and emotionally abused Roland’s mother, had arterial scoliosis (“ice in the vein”), and suffered a nervous breakdown. Orzabal’s mother would soon move out of the house with her three boys and raise them alone in Bath.

Mercury Records wanted more from this band, and fast. They knew Roland was developing a new song called Head Over Heels, but it wasn’t ready. And while the label pressured Roland and Curt to have a second album ready for 1984, they got the boys to release a cut track, The Way You Are, to hold fans over while Songs From The Big Chair was being developed. They toured. They took extra months to make their masterpiece. And then they toured again. No wonder they were too exhausted to play Live Aid on a day off in their summer 1985 tour.

1. Songs From The Big Chair (1985)

I didn’t want this to be my number one. Nope. I really wanted to put The Hurting here.

However, I gave Songs From The Big Chair two full listens for this blog post. I had never listened to this album twice in a day, and I hadn’t played it in probably 12 years, because I feel it is their best known and most overplayed work. But after serious listens, I have a new judgement of this album. I heard things I hadn’t noticed nor appreciated before. Things like the Fairlight CMI in Shout. Sure I have heard the song dozens of times, but hearing it in 2022 let me think back and connect the dots. I first heard the Fairlight CMI on Peter Gabriel’s Security Album in 1982, and then Herbie Hancock’s Rockit album in 1983. By 1984, it was everywhere, even in hair metal. Phil Collins even dissed it. But you know what? The Farlight rules. Shout is also one of the few protest songs to chart in the 1980s.

Once they get that out of the way, what’s the second song? The Working Hour, which is 6 and a half minutes. Roland is so proud of this song, he still includes it in live set lists and almost named the album after it. Listen to that production and big budget mix. Remind you of another artist? Here’s a hint: he’s also from Bath. Yes, this is a very Peter Gabriel song for me. It’s like a cousin of Red Rain, with its grand piano and wide stereo sound (but Gabriel liked the Yamaha and Roland piano synths, right?). Jerry Marotta plays both drums and keyboards on The Working Hour. Perhaps just weeks after this album was released, Marotta would lay down the drum tracks for Red Rain (with Stewart Copeland performing the cymbals and high hat). This album makes the case for greatness with just its second track.

But you know what’s coming next. Track # 3. Everybody Wants To Rule The World. Could this be the best pop song of 1985? If not this, then what? Raspberry Beret? Sussudio? I Feel For You? Take On Me? Money For Nothing? Don’t You (Forget About Me)? Everything She Wants? The Boys Of Summer? In 1985 you had so much to choose from. But this stays in the mixtape. How can it not? Shit, the 1985 mixtape has to start with this song.

Side A ends with Mother’s Talk. It’s fine. Compared to what came before, it’s a little lazy. It has a dash of primal theory. Play it through and turn that LP over. And then prepare for a dramatic shift.

Hope you got your dancing done on Side A. Because Side B starts with one of my very favorite Tears For Fears songs. At first glance, it might be an optimistic tune. It’s called “I Believe.” Hey guys, Roland believes in something! And then you listen to the words. and it is a marvelous punch in the gut:

That's why I believe it is too late for anyone to believe

Or how about the end?

And I believe, no I can't believe that every time you hear a newborn scream
You just can't see the shaping of a life
The shaping of a life
It's too late

Primal theory again, there.

Roland delivers some of his very best vocals, backed by a grand piano, a drum kit and a saxophone. What sounds like the sample of a record skipping backwards opens the track. It’s a jazz song, like Advice For The Young At Heart.

This won the Grammy for Best Pop Duo or Group, right?

No?

The Grammy went to [checks Wikipedia] Quincy Jones and USA for Africa for We Are The World.

Well, fuck! FUCK!!!!

Phil Collins got his male solo Grammy for No Jacket Required. Fine. But seriously, fuck this shit. We knew that New Wave power groups Simple Minds nor U2 weren’t going to win for best Pop Duo or Group. And I love three of Wham’s songs, but Wham was not going to win a trophy. It should have been Tears For Fears.

Side B of Songs From The Big chair is short. It goes by real quick. We are left reeling from I Believe, but the boys proceed with a sandwich of three tracks to take us home: Broken, Head Over Heels, and a snippet of the Broken instrumental, played live. I wasn’t annoyed when artists added a “reprise” or alternate mix version of a song on their albums in the 80s. It was a way to add some filler, and get a window on what the artist thought was a highlight of the production. But I am surprised Tears For Fears did this. The next critically acclaimed band to repeat themselves was probably Radiohead some 15 years later, with Morning Bell. Broken is an odd song. It kicks off super strong with a long instrumental introduction, complete with a Roland guitar solo. “We are broken” is the first chorus, and then the song takes us to what sounds like a second chorus:

In my mind's eye
One little boy anger one little man
Funny how time flies

This leads straight to one of their greatest songs that also ends with those very same lines.

Head Over Heels is the first love song Tears For Fears put on a record. It’s their wonderfully awkward love song. "Something happens" is passive voice. The songwriting here is genius. This describes anxiety, fear and a little anger all so well and efficiently. It's the love song for people who aren't players nor have any game. And it opens with chords that are instantly recognizable, just like Everybody Wants To Rule The World.

The final track is Listen. It’s mostly instrumental, and it dabs in World Music, but not the great way Peter Gabriel does it. If we knew this would be the final Tears For Fears album, it would go down as a weak final studio track. Roland Orzabal arranges the tracks. He knows how to pick them. Six of their seven albums close with really strong, fitting songs. The weakest closer, in my opinion is Listen. But can anyone complain after 8 songs -6 of them phenomenal- in just 41 minutes? Take your prize, Tears For Fears. This album is your masterpiece. It was produced by Chris Hughes, Adam Ant’s drummer. All synthesizers, programming, sequencing, and the Fairlight CMI were manned by Ian Stanley. Aside from Roland’s vocals and guitar, he IS this record, and he’s the guy in the Head Over Heels Video who’s got game.

And this incredible album almost didn’t happen. Their label wanted this sophomore album released in 1984, hot on the heels of their great debut and first tour. But the boys would not rush things. They spent nearly all their money renovating a Grade II listed 16th century building, called The Wool Hall, converting it into their recording studio. Thus they made a studio that suited them, their sound, and their work pace.

They released Songs From The Big Chair when it was ready.
That too describes their fellow Bath native, Peter Gabriel. The world is still waiting for him to release his tenth and final studio album (it will probably never come). And this album set the standard for all Tears For Fears albums that followed. Roland Orbazal is the creative director, and he decides when a project is done.

Are they done? Not this year. They start a US and UK tour this spring.