344) Tears for Fears - The Tipping Point

We are back in the early 80s where either you buy the album, or your mate buys it and then we copy it for each other. Anyway, my mate copied me The Hurting by Tears for Fears, the singles were excellent as we all know and overall a pretty good record.

Then they went mega mainly on the back of Everybody Wants to Rule the World, I hated that song, I can’t remember if I just got sick of it as it was everywhere or if I just didn’t like it from the get go, still don’t.

Then they disappeared for one hundred years and reappeared with The Seeds of Love, can’t deny that the title track single was a belter but I thought the subsequent singles were poor and that was where me and Tears for Fears parted.  Much more significantly it was also the end for band member Curt Smith who walked after The Seeds of Love tour.

Roland Orzabal continued the band releasing a couple of albums but to diminishing returns and unless the odd single came up on my phone or the radio I  forgot all about them.

I was looking at the magazines in John Menzies and there they both were on the front cover of Classic Pop.

Unbeknown to me Curt had rejoined the band years earlier they had already made one album and were about to release a new one.  Who knew? Not me, no one phoned me or sent me an email, talk about being out of the loop.

This record put Tears for Fears back in the charts reaching number two, so I guess a lot more people were in the loop than me, nothing changes. On reading, Roland lost his wife during the recording so to release such a focused album is testament to the band, listen to the emotional Please Be Happy, a man putting it out there.

Known for insanely catchy tunes the album starts low key with No Small Thing just an acoustic guitar and Olzabel’s vocal, it’s a clever move, threw me a bit, layers are added, it’s not going to blow you away but is a solid start.

The title track I’d imagine is greeted by fans as wildly as the hits, neither man’s voices seemed to have weathered with age and they complement each other, Smith still has his falsetto.

Several tracks don’t grab me, there are no clunkers on here but Long, Long, Long Time and End of Night, both excellently sang but I wouldn’t rush back to hear.

However, Break the Man has a chorus that cannot fail to lift your mood, My Demons Tears for Fears go for it Roland leads and it doesn’t let up, if you were in a pub and didn’t know it you would be reaching for Shazam.

Masterplan starts and has an 80’s feel to it but builds to a solid song, the band have not lost their ability or their pop sensibility.

I wasn’t sure what I would think of this and decided to listen out of curiosity, glad I did.

7/10

GIVE IT A STREAM: My Demons