From The Archive: Tears For Fears
The Tipping Point
Note: This was part of the 100 new (to me) records I reviewed in 2022. I’m still trying out this thing called “traveling with my kids,” so please enjoy an encore presentation of this review in my absence.
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I was conscripted into becoming a Tears For Fears fan.
In the mid-90s, I worked for a regional airline. My supervisor was cool but had a very uncool obsession with the band. And by obsession, I mean having them on all the time wasn't enough. "Songs from the Big Chair" (or a burned CD) would play nonstop in the boombox in our operations area. Racing to the bar before the last call? That'd be the soundtrack. God help us if it was karaoke night.
Get-togethers at her house? Yep, then, too. Her car was mercifully full one night, and a couple of us rode with her boyfriend. Relief? Nope. We were halfway through a Tears For Fears song before leaving the lot. (sigh)
As a kid, I liked Songs From the Big Chair when it came out. I sang chanted the chorus to "Shout" like everyone else. I thought “Everybody Wants to Rule The World” was great. I didn't like "Head Over Heels."
2 out of 3 ain't bad.
I was working in a record store when Elemental came out. I found the new direction refreshing. "Break It Down Again" sounds as good today as it did in 1993 (just to be sure, I listened to it again before writing this sentence).
But then, in 1995, I went to work at the airport…
After I left for another carrier, I never listened to them. It's not that the band was bad; I'd just OD'ed on them. I was just…done. I didn't listen to either Everybody Loves a Happy Ending or Raoul and the Kings of Spain. I still can’t name a single song off of either.
Still, I didn't much mind when "Everybody Wants to Rule The World" started appearing in Fidelity ads. I laughed more than I probably should've at the memes that have recently sprouted up. I wouldn't turn the station if they came on, but I didn't seek them out either.
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We had a weird sort of détente.
And then over the last couple of weeks, I started seeing more and more people talking about them and their new record. Curiosity got the better of me, and I had to hear it for myself.
After 18 years, Tears For Fears are back, and I suppose I am too.
The band is a little greyer now, more wizened. The duo might look like your parents, but it’s not your mom’s music—at least not the same sound she listened to in the early 80s.
The time away from the spotlight wasn’t easy—Orzabal lost his 1st wife in 2017—but out of the ashes came a dense, layered record that’s tough to get sick of, let alone laugh at.
The record opens quietly with the “No Small Thing” but gets up to speed quickly. The title track would be at home on the radio--at least until people start listening to the lyrics, which retell the story of Orzabal becoming a widower.
Life is cruel, life is tough
Life is crazy, then it all turns to dust
We let 'em out, we let 'em in
We'll let 'em know when it's the tipping point, the tipping point?
The tipping point, the tipping point, the tipping pointSo who's that ghost knocking at my door?
(You know that I can't love you more)
What's that shape climbing over my wall?
(You know that I can't love you more)
3 I don't know if I hear a hit outside of those three. That's not to say that the record's not good- it is- but I can't see it eclipsing Songs as the band's identity. Likewise, this isn't a "for fans only" record.
It lies somewhere in between.
Which, in this case, might be optimal. I’m saying it as praise. It sounds novel yet familiar. It's definitely a Tears For Fears record, but it sounds as at home in 2022 as it might've in 1989.
Everybody might love a happy ending, but it's too soon to tell if this is the last hurrah or the start of a new chapter for Smith and Orzabal. I don't know. Ultimately, this record feels like a catharsis for two people who've seen some things.
What I do know is that I haven't spoken to my old supervisor in over 20 years. But I'd be willing to bet she's already listened to it more than most of us combined.
Listen:
Tears For Fears | The Tipping Point, 2022
What are your thoughts on the record?
Thanks for being here,
Kevin—
Great article! And great writing, as always.
I love Tears for Fears but I can imagine I would also get a bit fed up or at least saturated if someone was playing them 24/7 🤣
Thanks for this, Kevin! I had the same OD-experience on TFF as a kid in the 80s. I could happily go the rest of my days without hearing "Shout," but your take on their new music has me intrigued to revisit.