|
 |
|
Tears For Fears: Chronicles: The
Hurting/Songs From The Big Chair/The Seeds Of Love (Mercury/Universal
2005) |
  |
Buy your copy now from
|
|
 |
Tears For Fears were a pop band, but they were also far, far more than just a
pop band. Core members Roland Orzabal (guitar, large mouth, longer hair, wrote
most of their material) and Curt Smith (bass, the quiet one, had a Caesar cut
years before it was trendy) took their name from a Janov book on primal scream
therapy. Their songs were catchy, but also deathly serious, dealing with nuclear
war, man’s reluctance to be sensitive, and enough self-pity to give Morrissey
pause. They made three albums in the ‘80s, none of which sounded remotely alike.
The first one was an electronic/acoustic pop mopefest, the sophomore record a
rock-based rafter shaking classic, while the third one is the best album the
Beatles never made. Outside of Talk Talk, you’d be hard pressed to find a band
that evolved over the course of their first three albums like Tears For Fears
did.
The new Chronicles set contains their first three albums, as well as a
slew of B-sides and remixes. They also contain new CD booklets chock full ‘o
recent interviews with the band discussing each record in detail. Anyone who
only knows their singles would be wise to check this set out, as each one of
these albums is nearly perfect.
The Hurting (1983)
A slew of artists in the ‘90s began making records using an acoustic guitar and
a drum machine (Beck, Joseph Arthur, David Gray), but Tears For Fears was doing
it a good ten to fifteen years before any of them. The Hurting is known
as a synth pop record, but that is a gross injustice, as the album is quite
organic with electronic flourishes. “Change” and “Pale Shelter” were big MTV
hits, and “Mad World” has enjoyed a renaissance thanks to Gary Jules’ haunting
cover from a few years ago. But the rest of the album is just as strong, with
songs like “Suffer the Children,” “Watch Me Bleed” and “Start of the Breakdown”
holding their own with the singles. The bottom line is, you have to give props
to any band from 1983 who had the nerve to put the lyric “The dreams in which
I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had” into a pop song.
The extras on this disc are the best of the bunch, with extended mixes of “Pale
Shelter,” “Mad World” and “Change,” along with the post-album single “The Way
You Are,” a song that Smith now admits he does not like one bit. Hearing it now,
it’s hard to argue with him; it’s odd and difficult, like they were trying to
make an unlikable song.
Songs from the Big Chair (1985)
This is still their watershed moment, a fantastic blend of American rock and
English sensibility that proved to be a worldwide smash. First single “Everybody
Wants to Rule the World” was nearly left off the album, as the band found it
lacking in energy. It took a friend to point out how much Americans love their
driving songs that made them decide to keep it. Smart move, as the song went
straight to Number One. Follow-up single “Shout” hit the top not long after, and
“Head Over Heels,” the best single of the three, didn’t miss #1 by much. But
it’s the album tracks that really show the growth and depth of the band. The
syncopated “Working Hour” is one of the band’s finest, and “I Believe” shows the
band’s first foray into more soulful territory, something that would show itself
in earnest in a few years. When discussing the best pop albums of the ‘80s,
Songs from the Big Chair must be considered.
Sadly, the disc with the best potential for bonus tracks comes up short. “The
Big Chair” is an interesting bit of experimental pop, and “Empire Building”
sounds like a lost Art of Noise track from the ZTT era, but the versions of
“Broken” and “Mothers Talk” do not merit inclusion over alternate versions like
the “soulful re-recording” of “I Believe” or the Beat of the Drum mix of
“Mothers Talk.” Tears For Fears did a slew of extended remixes during this
period, but only one of them, the US remix of “Shout,” is included. Pity.
The Seeds of Love (1989)
Following up is hard to do. Four years, a slew of producers, and hundreds of
thousands of dollars later, Tears For Fears reemerges at the end of the decade
with The Seeds of Love, a gargantuan melding of Beatlesque hooks,
widescreen soundscapes, and an abundance of heart. And it was a piano player in
a tiny Kansas City hotel bar named Oleta Adams who set them on the path to
salvation. Her vocal on “Woman in Chains” is riveting, and her piano playing on
the eight-minute jam “Badman’s Song” is the friskiest thing to ever see the
light of day on a Tears For Fears album. But it’s the glorious, sprawling title
track that is the highlight. An unabashed Beatles love letter, “Sowing the Seeds
of Love” is one of the most brilliantly constructed pop songs of its or any
other decade. Where the majority of their peers were running for cover by
decade’s end, Tears For Fears finished the ‘80s off with their heads held high,
a marked contrast to the shy, withdrawn youths they were just six short years
earlier.
The bonus tracks here are considerably different than the more dance oriented
affair of the first two albums. There is what appears to be a first draft of the
Cuban-tinged “Tears Roll Down,” which would later surface on their 1992 singles
compilation. “Music for Tables” is a piano and horn-driven mid-tempo
instrumental, but the prize is “Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams,” a mash-up
of “Shout” and “Sowing the Seeds of Love” put to a “Funky Drummer” drum loop and
some operetta vocals sprinkled throughout.
The ‘90s were only mildly kind to Tears For Fears: Smith left the band in 1992,
and Orzabal did two average to good records without him. It wasn’t until last
year that they made a proper follow-up,
Everybody Loves a Happy Ending. As wonderful as that album is, the magic
is here, in these three albums.
~David Medsker
dmedsker@bullz-eye.com
|
 |
|
