If you’ve been following any music accounts on social, you may be aware that Tears For Fears – the English duo made up of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith – released their first album since 2004 this past week, their second together since 1991’s The Seeds Of Love.

I’ll be honest: I thought they’d packed it in back in 1991. As surprised as I was that they were back with this one, I was maybe more surprised that they’d had albums in the time since.

My entire experience of Tears For Fears is based on those seminal mid eighties singles “Shout” and “Everybody Wants To Rule The World”. I remember them from “Sowing The Seeds Of Love”, a stadium-sized pop-rock track that misses the mark. So I was unsure what to expect from this one.

The Tipping Point opens with the anthemic “No Small Thing”, a simple guitar giving way to soaring vocals, singing ‘Freedom is no small thing / We punish the child for flying too high / For rushing like the wind’. The title track is a bit more typical of what I might have expected, a subtle bass line and a typically electro vocal that hits just a bit harder than most; its the first really great track on this album.

This is a pop-electronic album but there is a maturity to the proceedings that is missing on most, a testament to the experience of these two. Everything just feels that little bit more refined, decisions made lending themselves to song structure than pure sound – “Break The Man” is a great example, but the whole album is like this.

One of my favourite albums of the year so far.

…
CLTM (Chris Listens To Music) is my attempt to listen to a new album every day; you can follow my efforts on Instagram here (and send recommendations), and if you like what I’m doing, support my efforts by shouting me a cuppa at Buy Me A Coffee.