Tears For Fears Album Reviews

Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith were both members of the band Graduate, who played an awkward hybrid of ska and mod revival.

When Graduate broke up, Orzabal and Smith formed Tears for Fears. It’s named after Arthur Janov’s primal therapy, also referenced in many of their songs and beloved by John Lennon. Orzabal wrote most of their material, while the pair shared lead vocals.

Tears for Fears’ debut album, The Hurting, was successful in the UK, while 1985’s Songs from the Big Chair topped the US charts.

The band can be frustrating – their best songs are intelligent and sophisticated, but their albums can be uneven.

Tears For Fears Album Reviews

The Hurting

Songs from the Big Chair

The Seeds of Love

Elemental

Raoul and the Kings of Spain

Everybody Loves a Happy Ending

The Tipping Point

10 Best Tears for Fears Songs

The Hurting

1983, 8/10
Smith and Orzabal both endured troubled childhoods. Orzbal’s mother was a stripper, and his father was a World War II veteran prone to outbursts of violence. Meanwhile, Smith grew up in a broken home on a council estate. The pair embraced Janov’s primal therapy, and Smith later said that The Hurting is an “attempt to find out why our backgrounds were so messed up”.

Joy Division and Gary Numan inspired the cold synth-pop sound of The Hurting. Orzabal and Smith share lead vocals, supported by drummer Manny Elias and keyboardist Ian Stanley.

Smith’s sweeter vocals feature on the album’s first three singles – ‘Mad World’, ‘Change’, and ‘Pale Shelter’ all reached the UK top five. Orzabal’s wife provides backing vocals on ‘Suffer the Children’, another standout. It’s arguably their most consistent album – even deep cuts like ‘Memories Fade’ have pretty melodies.

The Hurting was a massively successful debut for Tears for Fears, establishing them as stars in the UK.

Songs from the Big Chair

1985, 6.5/10
Tears for Fears returned with a brighter, glossier sound for Songs from the Big Chair. Smith wrote in the album booklet that “We were very introverted on The Hurting; it was a very dark album. We found the need to be more outgoing on The Big Chair.”

But despite the more confident sound, it’s much more uneven. The three sublime hit singles make the rest of the album look pedestrian in comparison. The most popular track (‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’) has had more than 300 times as many streams as the least popular (‘Listen’). On Michael Jackson’s Thriller, ‘Billie Jean’ has only had 30 times as many streams as ‘The Lady in My Life’.

‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ is a great pop/rock song with a smooth Smith vocal and a terrific Orzabal guitar solo. Orzabal delivers a swooning vocal on ‘Head Over Heels’. ‘Shout’ isn’t a favourite, but it’s hard to deny its anthemic power. But the rest of the album is forgettable and dated – the ultra-perfected sound removes the personality from the lesser tracks.

Songs from the Big Chair is three classics and a bunch of filler.

The Seeds of Love

1989, 8/10
Tears for Fears made three completely different albums in the 1980s. The Seeds of Love is lavish sophisti-pop, with long, complex songs. It cost over £1 million to make, while Big Chair only cost £70,000. The first half is much stronger than the second, but it’s still my favourite Tears for Fears album of the decade.

Smith and Ozabal discovered Oleta Adams playing in a Kansas City hotel lounge during their 1985 American tour. She duets with Ozabal on the opening ‘Woman in Chains’, and adds piano and vocals elsewhere. Other famous guests include Phil Collins, Manu Katché, and Pino Palladino. Smith is less involved than before, while session keyboardist Nicky Holland cowrote more than half the record.

The Seeds of Love is dizzingly diverse. Lead single ‘Sowing the Seeds of Love’ echoes The Beatles with its psychedelic verses and harmonised chorus. ‘Woman in Chains’ is a soulful feminist anthem, while Curt Smith gets his only lead vocal on the gentle ‘Advice for the Young at Heart’. The lesser songs sometimes feel overdone, but it’s always interesting.

The Seeds of Love is a fascinating changeup from Tears of Fears, and its stature has grown with time.

Elemental

1993, 7.5/10
Smith and Orzabal parted ways after the tour for The Seeds of Love. Smith launched a solo career, while Orzabal continued Tears for Fears as a solo project. Given the change in decade and the change in personnel, Elemental is a surprisingly strong record. Orzabal uses Smith’s departure as inspiration, particularly on ‘Fish Out Of Water’, with barbs aimed at his former (and future!) bandmate – “With all your cigarettes and fancy cars/You ain’t a clue who or what you are”

The singles are strong too – ‘Cold’ makes use of Orzabal’s high register in its pretty verse melody, the kind of song that Smith would have fronted for the band. ‘Break It Down Again’ is energetic and memorable. There’s a Beach Boys tribute on ‘Brian Wilson Said’, while ‘Goodnight Song’ is an epic, yet upbeat, closer.

Elemental is a surprisingly vital record in a situation where Tears For Fears could have become quickly irrelevant.

Raoul and the Kings of Spain

1995, 7/10
Just like on Elemental, Orzabal’s able to deliver a convincing Tears for Fears album without Smith in tow. He’s an underrated guitarist – his guitar work imbues some energy into his adult contemporary songs.

The lyrics delve into Orzabal’s Argentinian and Spanish-Basque heritage. Orzabal explains that the title reflected “that my great great grandmother was the cousin of the president of Argentina, so really the album should have been called Raoul and the Presidents of Argentina, but not a lot of things rhyme with Argentina.”

It feels a little similar to Elemental, and it’s a little sleepy in places, particularly the last two tracks. But there’s lot of strong material – the title track and ‘Secrets’ are surprisingly satisfying singles. It’s fun when Orzabal deviates from the usual Tears for Fears template on the rocker ‘Don’t Drink the Water’ and the danceable, 1990s-flavoured ‘Humdrum and Humble’. Oleta Adams drops in to duet with Orzabal on ‘Me and My Big Ideas’.

Like Elemental, Raoul is another surprisingly robust 1990s Tears for Fears album.

Everybody Loves a Happy Ending

2004, 6/10
Despite dissing each other on their 1990s albums, Smith and Orzabal reconnected in 2000. Smith and Orzabal wrote Everybody Loves a Happy Ending with Smith’s 1990s songwriting partner Charlton Pettus.

While Orzabal valiantly recreated the Tears for Fears sound on their 1980s albums, Everybody Loves a Happy Ending is quite different. The duo explore a 1960s-inspired chamber-pop sound, with gentle vocals and sophisticated chord changes. They have the musical faculty to pull it off, but it’s faceless without their usual blend of sadness and pompousness.

It also feels a bit long and samey, with twelve 5-minute songs. But it’s easy to enjoy the craftsmanship on songs like ‘Size of Sorrow’ and ‘Who Killed Tangerine’. ‘Who You Are’ is the first Tears For Fears song not written by Orzabal, while ‘Size of Sorrow’ dates back to the 1990s.

Everybody Loves a Happy Ending is a different direction for Tears For Fears, and it’s only partially successful.

The Tipping Point

2022, 7/10
The Tipping Point took the band almost a decade. It reflects the setbacks that delayed its release. In 2017, Orzabal’s wife died at 54 from alcohol-related dementia – the song ‘I Love You but I’m Lost’ appeared on a 2017 compilation, but other songs like ‘Please Be Happy’ also reflect on their relationship. The band were also pressured by their record company to update their sound by collaborating with younger artists.

Everybody Loves A Happy Ending explored a playful baroque pop sound, but The Tipping Point returns to the epic glumness of earlier Tears for Fears albums. It’s a graceful aging, more subdued and spiritual than their previous work.