Tears For Fears – The Tipping Point
(Concord)
Reviewed by Bridget Herlihy.
On the thirty-seventh anniversary of the release of the critically acclaimed ‘Songs From The Big Chair’, Tears For Fears dropped ‘The Tipping Point’, an album that has apparently been up to seven years in the making. Founded by Roland Orzabel and Curt Smith in 1981, the English pop-rock duo have frequently fallen under the umbrella of the synth-heavy New Romantic and New Wave bands that dominated the music charts around the world at the time. Tracks such as ‘Shout’, ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’, ‘Mothers Talk’ and ‘Head Over Heels’ continue to receive regular airplay, and are often considered to be songs that help to define the musical legacy of the 80s. News that Tears For Fears were poised to release their seventh album was often met with surprise followed by comments such as “are they still around?”. The truth is that they may have pressed pause for a time, but they never really left. To label them as a ‘legacy act’ is a significant disservice to the body of work that Orzabel and Smith have produced over the last forty years.
Like many bands that have been producing work for a significant period of time, Tears For Fears have not been without their own share of issues. There was an acrimonious split between Orzabel and Smith proceeding the release of their platinum selling third album ‘The Seeds Of Love in 1989’; a parting of ways that saw Orzabel release two further albums under the Tears For Fears moniker sans Smith. Following a reconciliation in 2001, the pair released ‘Everybody Loves A Happy Ending’ in 2004. Although it has been almost 18 years between albums, Tears For Fears have regularly continued to tour, including a slot opening for Spandau Ballet at Spark Arena in Auckland in 2010. Orzabel announced that the duo were working on a new album five years ago; it seems that the path to bringing ‘The Tipping Point’ to fruition has been far from smooth, including scrapping much of the first incantation of the album and starting again.
While there are still echoes of the distinctive Tears For Fears sound, ‘The Tipping Point’ is in no way an attempt to relive their ‘glory’ days. Rather they set out to do something that is both new and interesting to them, as they always have. The lush and polished songs that make up this album, which still grounded in pop/rock, introduce a more contemporary approach that has Orzabel and Smith finding themselves again, letting their musical boredom give way to excitement, while gently pushing the boundaries of the sound that once made them a household name. Much of the album was inspired by the process of grief, yet this does not a bleak and morose album make. Rather, it is a catharsis of sorts for the duo, with many of the tracks recounting pivotal moments in their lives. Album opener ‘No Small Thing’ is a soothing, predominantly acoustic track of hope that reminds us that despite everything life throws our way “freedom is no small thing”. The up-tempo title track ‘The Tipping Point’ – which recalls the illness and subsequent death of Orbazel’s first wife – has moments reminiscent of ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’, with a distinctive bassline that has a pared back sense of urgency. The first two tracks of the album have both Orzabel and Smith sharing the vocals, but the remaining eight tracks see them singing their own songs (exquisitely backed by Puscifer’s Carina Round). The melancholic orchestral ‘Please Be Happy’ ruminates about Orzabel’s late wife’s battle with depression, while ‘My Demons’ is probably the most energetic, assertive and beat-heavy of the album’s tracks, and is cleverly juxtaposed against the somewhat haunting ‘Rivers Of Mercy’. ‘The Master Plan’ (which compositionally includes a few moments that appear to be a nod to The Beatles and Pink Floyd) is a rebuttal of sorts to the duo’s former management attempting to discourage them from recording a new album.
Orzabel and Smith agree that this is their best work to date, and as such ‘The Tipping Point’ is a thoroughly enjoyable listen from beginning to end. Furthermore, it is confirmation that Tears For Fears are indeed very capable of exploring new depths of their musicality and creativity, and they do it with elegance.
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