Sorted magAZine - Roland Orzabal A big family get-together Roland Orzabal, formerly of Tears for Fears, discusses his new album, the impact of deaths around him on the new material and working with his former band-mate Curt Smith again. The British duo, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, also known as Tears for Fears, swept the charts in the '80s with mega hits such as 'Shout', 'Everybody wants to rule the world' and 'Sowing the seeds of love'. Jumping on-board the early MTV video craze, the angelic-looking Smith and the pensive, contemplative personae of Orzabal, captured worldwide recognition for their brand of intelligent, introspective synth pop. Their debut album in '83, "The Hurting" was followed up in '85 with the hugely successful "Songs from the big chair", much of it based on their then obsession with primal therapy. The latter delivered two number one hits in the USA, along with a bevy of awards. The lads from Bath became the poster boys for adolescent angst.

By 1989 and the release of 'The Seeds of love', TFF had broken free from the early musical straitjacket and produced a remarkably expressive album of pivotal work (featuring the soulful talent of Oleta Adams). But the seeds of discontent between Orzabal and Smith were apparent. Splitting up due to creative and personal differences in 1990, both pursued solo musical careers. Smith moved to America, Orzabal remained on home-turf, continuing under the mantle of TFF and releasing four albums; "Tears roll down/Greatest hits" ('92), "Elemental" ('93), "Raoul & the kings of Spain" ('95), "Saturnine, martial and lunatic" ('96). After a five-year hiatus, Orzabal is putting aside both the TFF moniker and more importantly, the TFF themes that have come to identify him with the emotional turmoil that dominated the early albums.

Launching his new CD, "Tomcats Screaming Outside", under his own name, Roland hopes to pursue the freedom to create music without the baggage of being considered an 80's retro band - leaving him open to the future possibility of writing, recording and touring again with Smith as TFF. From his hometown of Bath, he discussed the decision to record as just himself. "I was on tour last time doing 'Raoul & the kings Of Spain' in Bogota, Columbia and had a few very, very difficult days of promotion. They were advertising the concert with songs like 'Mad world' and 'Change'. I don't think we had a hit there since 1983. We had a lot of problems with the lights and sound - getting the whole show together, but finally, when I stepped out on stage and after three or four numbers, they were going mad. At the end of the show it was just absolutely phenomenal. Yet during the encores, in my mind, I said, 'I've had enough of this, the whole history of Tears for Fears'." He says that he knew he had to go away and try something else.

He wanted to get away from the whole subject material that has been pretty consistent from the beginning and try and go into different areas. It took a while. "I wanted to take away the burden and history of Tears For Fears. I'm not saying that, in the future there won't be another Tears For Fears album, there quite possibly will be. I wanted for this one to take the pressure off, remove the sword of Damocles that's been over my head after every album, and just see where it goes and how it would feel to cut off from the past a little. Not worry about the commercial aspects, how many records are going to sell and that rubbish. Just try on another suit of clothes for a while." The title for the new album, "Tomcats Screaming Outside", came from a remark made by his wife. Roland had been struggling to find an album title for some time. Then his wife's father collapsed and they got a phone call from the hospital at 1:30 in the morning. As his wife went out the door, she said that a tomcat was screaming outside, which he heard as "Tomcats screaming outside" and thought, "hmmm...

that's it!" "I thought it was a good title. I wanted something with an urban feel to it. It's more a title of a film or novel, and not the title of a record. Once we'd done the artwork and I chose the album cover, and I saw the title in a certain font, I thought, 'That's good, that's another world and it's different than anything I've done before'. Recent tragedies in his life, including the death of his wife Caroline's parents, influenced some of the themes on the album. "It's difficult when people are dying around you. Caroline lost her mum two years ago, and her dad recently and although they aren't my parents, it does affect you, big time, especially when you see what your partner is going through. We lost our gardener, a good friend of mine lost his wife - a lot of death, I'm afraid. So you see with the lyrics, 'Hey Andy' - 'When I die you'll be waiting for me', I'm trying to gain some understanding of it." The album was co-written and produced with Alan Griffiths, who Roland describes as being obsessed with music, and a bit of a librarian.

"The way he catalogues music, sounds and samples. He is extremely critical about music as well - it's his whole life. And working with something like that, in terms of only working with another person, it's brilliant because your own obsessions and instincts are tested against somebody else's. Alan won't rest until he feels something is on the right track. Between the two of us, we can do most things and it's amazing." However, Tears for Fears fans will be happy to hear that Roland has been writing with Curt Smith again after ten years. They have had on-going business together dating from their time together in the band and Roland contacted him in connection with one of his properties in America. Curt replied with an email saying, "Thanks, brilliant, that's excellent. Give me a call, or I'll call you". They spoke on the phone, and Roland says, laughingly, "after that long I think we both realized that we'd grown up! "So much time had elapsed that I think we both realized we were different people, big time. We stared talking again, which was kind of a relief really, as there were so many horrendous grudges kinda floating around.

We really have gone in different ways, although we are both in the music industry. We aren't tied to each other so we are going to try it out. We did a couple of weeks together in October and in L.A. in December. "It's strange, 'cos in the 90's when I started working with Al, we'd get together and just write songs. We'd jam and it almost sounds finished while we are jamming. That wasn't how it was in the old days - writing songs was like getting blood out of a stone. Everything was so laboured and studied. Then, when I hooked up with Curt again, it was very strange not to be working in the stream-of-conscious way, which I had been doing with Al." They went into the studio and tried to come up with something that was more commercial. Roland describes it as a frustrating time. "Then something broke all of a sudden and it was really, really catchy! It's been nothing like I've been doing, more like the 'Seeds of love' period. We've got a couple of tracks, but it's a very different way of working. I've been working with Alan as well in regards to a TFF album.

Curt is in LA and I've been going over and working at Alan's place, all towards the same goal. Also Charlton Pettus, who Curt's been working with for years, so he's involved as well. A big family get-together!" There have been a few offers from labels and promoters in relation to a Tears for Fears reunion, but they haven't taken anyone up on the offer. Roland said that they wanted to see whether they were still fertile. "At one point, out of the two of us, regardless of who did what, there sprung up an interesting beast. The fact is that I've had enough with doing TFF as myself, as me. I wanted to truly be on my own and therefore that leaves the option of Tears For Fears - what is it, what was it, does it have a future... we don't know. We're going to get together and see what emerges. Yes, there has been a lot of interest, but you can't live your life by those things, it has to feel right.

I don't think either of us are the type of people who could actually put our prejudices aside and say, 'We're going do this for the money.' We're not like that." In fact, Roland says that he made more money in the '90s than in the 80s, due to better contracts, more control, more of a catalogue. So, financially, he has done all right out of Tears for Fears. As for the fame, he doesn't miss it. "I was never a fame junky. I always liked the task and project of making records. When I went out on my own, I loved performing. To do great work, in my own opinion, is enough. What's been good, is my level of success and fame has always been controllable. Had I been as big on my own in the 90's as I was in the 80's, it would have unleashed a monster! Most of the success has been outside the country and you can't go through a career of 20 years of making records and not go through a major blip. "I feel I've been lucky, to do what I do, and survive and make a living.

At the end of the day, your life doesn't evolve around success, but evolves around your immediate relationships, and that's what makes your life extremely rich." Related by Katherine Kelly The Sorted magAZine discussion forum is back, just click on the text above. Tired of trawling through event listings, 95% of which you have absolutely no interest in? Try ours, it's guaranteed Crap Free TM Enter your email address below and click go A 'Happy Ending' for Tears for Fears (washingtonpost.com) A 'Happy Ending' for Tears for Fears By Richard Harrington Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, October 22, 2004; Page WE07 IT'S SUGGESTED to Roland Orzabal that the new Tears for Fears album reuniting him and partner Curt Smith after a 15-year split -- a decade of which they spent not talking to each other -- could have played off the title of their 1983 debut, "The Hurting." " 'The Healing?' " After making up, Tears for Fears' Curt Smith, left, and Roland Orzabal want to rule the world again. (Zoren Gold) Orzabal lets out a laugh.

"If that were only true, we could have, yeah," he responds. Instead, the new Tears for Fears album is titled "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending," a tongue-in-cheek play off one of their biggest hits, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." Which, of course, the duo did for much of the '80s before the unhappy ending after Smith's departure in 1990. Orzabal didn't call it Tear for Fear, but he kept the band name alive in the '90s via two albums and two world tours before finally pulling the plug in 1996. Orzabal and Smith, who both released solo albums, might not have communicated at all were it not for the business attending their Tears for Fears legacy -- best-ofs, continuing royalties, leasing songs to soundtracks, etc. When they did talk, it tended to be over the phone, through lawyers, or through common friends in their home town of Bath in England. "We were leading pretty open lives, without much stress and a lot of comfort," Orzabal recalls.

"Yet there was always this guy in your background who was like a bogeyman, someone that you don't really talk about, someone that you try to avoid, and that's not a very healthy thing." Three years ago, they began to socialize again when Smith, who'd relocated to the United States in 1990, was visiting his family in Bath. By then, enough time had apparently passed to heal old animosities. And as talk turned to music, it inspired some tentative collaboration, with each critiquing, then augmenting the other's new songs, almost casually ending what Smith once described as "the longest sulk in history." "A lot of that was, I think, a desire for reconciliation," says Orzabal of the patch-up, "and also a test to see how much we'd really grown up, to see whether we would revert back to moody teenagers." Orzabal and Smith, both born in 1961, had met at the start of moody teendom, as 13-year-old schoolmates.

Within a few years, they'd joined their first band: Graduate, ska revivalists who had a minor hit in the late '70s with "Elvis Should Play Ska" (it was the height of the ska revival in England). In 1981, they decided to form their own band, wisely changing the original name, History of Headaches, to Tears for Fears. The new name came from a chapter heading in psychotherapist Arthur Janov's primal scream text "Prisoners of Pain," which counseled confronting fears to eliminate them. Orzabal had turned Smith on to Janov's book, and it would provide a psychological underpinning to much of the duo's early music, notably the chart-topping "Shout," where they counseled letting it all out. The '80s were good to them. They followed their debut with 1985's sextuple platinum "Songs From the Big Chair" (with No. 1 worldwide hit "Everybody Wants to Rule the World") and 1989's Beatlesque "Seeds of Love." But what was being sown in the latter part of the decade was not love, but rancor and distrust.

As so often happens in successful partnerships, differences in personalities and approaches to the work made it difficult to continue. For one thing, Orzabal was known as an obsessive perfectionist in the studio (production costs for "Seeds of Love" were reportedly more than $1 million). "You can have certain artists who don't know a lot about arranging and production, and therefore they will rely on the producer," he responds. "I know a lot about it. I know how to get things. . . . My drive to create something magical is really evident on the song 'Woman in Chains' from 'Seeds of Love.' If I have to be obsessive to get something to sound that good, then I will be. Curt's not into that." By the time Orzabal got to 1993's "Elemental" and 1995's "Raoul and the Kings of Spain," Smith wasn't into Tears for Fears, period. "The relationship between me and Curt was almost nonexistent," Orzabal admits. "Curt was singing less and less songs, and that was part of the problem.

He sang four songs on the first album, two on the second, one on the third, so it was moving in that direction anyway. But the record company wanted me to carry on, they wanted to make [continuing to record as Tears for Fears] part of the deal." Smith made his solo debut in 1993 with "Soul on Board," and followed up in 1996 with a band project, Mayfield; Orzabal's first effort under his own name, "Tomcats Screaming Outside," had the misfortune to be released on 9/11. But by then, doors once slammed shut seemed to be opening, albeit slowly. "The tricky thing was when we were being successful, we both wanted different things, and we were operating as individuals within a collective setup," Orzabal explains. "That's why when we decided to make another record, it wasn't going to be like the past, where I would bring in most of the songs; we actually sat around together, forming kind of new energies, really. "It was very tentative at first," he says.

"I was trying to get away from orthodox songwriting, doing trip-hop and drum'n'bass -- you can hear it on my solo album and an album I produced for a girl named Emiliana Torrini. Curt and Charlton [Pettus, Smith's partner in Mayfield] were still hooked on very traditional songwriting, based on the guitar or piano, four or five chords. So it was, well, exactly what are we going to do, because I hadn't really written like that in years. "But they won, I suppose. We sat around and something came along, 'The Closest Thing to Heaven,' and I thought, well, this is different and a bit retro." In fact, much of "Happy Ending" has a rich retro feel, though more from the chamber-rock "Seeds of Love" era than the band's new wave/synth pop origins.

Standout tracks include the aforementioned "Closest Thing to Heaven," "Secret World," the gorgeously melancholy "Who You Are" and "Who Killed Tangerine?," with its insistent chorus, "When you think it's all over / It's not over, it's not over." For proof of that, just look at the weird afterlife of a song Orzabal wrote when he was 19. "Mad World" was one of the first Tears for Fears singles, and though it did well in England (reaching No. 3), it didn't chart at all in America. Cue to 20 years later when writer-director Richard Kelly commissioned Los Angeles singer Gary Jules to create a new version of the song for Kelly's debut feature, "Donnie Darko." Working with film composer Michael Andrews, Jules recast the synth pop original as an exquisitely melancholy piano and cello plaint. Its chorus -- "the dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had" -- captured the adolescent ennui central to "Donnie Darko," about a disturbed teenager convinced the world is about to end in the midst of the 1988 presidential election.

The film's original release did little business, but the film reappeared on the art house circuit and gradually turned into a cult hit (a director's cut DVD was recently released). The Jules version of "Mad World," used in a pivotal sequence in the film, began to garner airplay and proved a classic sleeper as well. Recorded in 90 minutes for $50 in Andrews's basement studio, last December it became only the sixth track by an American artist in more than 30 years to top the British pop chart during the highly competitive Christmas week. Its success also brought Tears for Fears' "Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92)" back into the Top 10 a decade after its release. Orzabal, noting that he and Smith had finished their new album in September 2003, suggests the song's perspective -- looking out at a mad world from the eyes of a teenager -- is quite common. "I wasn't working when I wrote it," he explains.

He and Smith "had this apartment, which my mum helped us get, 14 pounds a week, right in the center of Bath above a pizza joint, and I used to sit by the window and watch people walk by. I think it's a common sentiment when you're not working, and don't particularly want to work, and you see people having to work as being a rather sad thing." The Jules version, Orzabal says, was "miraculous. It was a song that I had pretty much dismissed. I hadn't performed it live throughout the '90s. I loved the way we did it, but recently in rehearsals we tried to do it in the way we had recorded it and it just didn't feel right at all. We're now playing yet another version of 'Mad World.' Gary Jules and Michael Andrews have shown how beautiful the song is, and they showed me that. It was shocking, really." Meanwhile, the reunion seems to be going well.

"So far I would say the least of our problems is how we relate to each other, and I'm guessing that it will remain that way throughout the promotion of this album," says Orzabal, recalling what he said to Smith "when we were talking about it potentially happening. I said, 'Look, if there can be peace in Northern Ireland, don't you feel that we can probably make this work?' " In any event, "if you're not more philosophical at age 40 than you are when you're 18, there's something wrong. One thing about growing up, having kids and all that kind of stuff, a fuzzy warmth does appear," Orzabal adds, though he also cautions that the reunion and the happy ending may not be permanent. "I've been coming up with loads and loads of songs and there were loads and loads of songs we didn't do as well, but to be honest with you, this album would have to be pretty damn successful to warrant us doing another one." TEARS FOR FEARS -- Appearing Tuesday with Dirty Vegas at Lisner Auditorium.

 To hear a free Sound Bite from Tears for Fears, call Post-Haste at 301-313-2200 and press 8121. (Prince William residents, call 703-690-4110.) Tears for Fears - Music on Google Play Tears for Fears About the artist Tears for Fears are an English pop/rock band formed in Bath, Somerset in 1981 by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, they were initially associated with the new wave synthesizer bands of the early 1980s but later branched out into mainstream rock and pop, which led to international chart success. They were part of the MTV-driven Second British Invasion of the US. Their platinum-selling debut album, The Hurting, reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, while their second album, Songs from the Big Chair, reached number one on the US Billboard 200, achieving multi-platinum status in both the UK and the US.

Their second album contained two Billboard Hot 100 number ones: "Shout" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"', the latter winning the Brit Award for Best British Single in 1986. Smith and Orzabal parted company in 1991, after the release of their third platinum-selling album The Seeds of Love, though Orzabal retained the Tears for Fears name throughout the remainder of the 1990s. The duo re-formed in 2000 and released an album of new material, Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, in 2004. 1 $8.99 Everybody Loves a Happy Ending is the sixth studio album by the British pop rock/new wave band Tears for Fears, released on 14 September 2004 in the US, and 7 March 2005 in the UK and Europe. It wa... 1 1 $9.49 Raoul and the Kings of Spain is the fifth album by the British pop-rock band Tears for Fears. Like the previous album, Elemental, it is essentially a solo effort by Roland Orzabal—neither album bei...

1 1 $5.99 Elemental is the fourth album by the British pop band Tears for Fears. It was released on 7 June 1993 and includes the hit single "Break It Down Again". The album peaked at No. 5 in the UK and No. ... 1 1 $6.99 The Seeds of Love is the third album by the British band Tears for Fears, released in September 1989. The album, which reportedly cost over £1 million to produce, retained the band's epic sound whi... 1 Duran Duran 0 Duran Duran are an English new wave/synthpop band formed in Birmingham in 1978. The band grew from alternative sensations in 1982 to mainstream pop stars by 1984. By the end of the decade, membersh... 0 Simple Minds 0 Simple Minds are a Scottish rock band. They formed in Glasgow in 1977 and became the most commercially successful Scottish band of the 1980s. They achieved five UK number one albums during their ca... 0 Howard Jones 0 John Howard Jones is an English musician, singer, and songwriter.

He had ten top 40 hit singles in the UK between 1983 and 1986, including six which reached the top ten, and his 1984 album Human's ... 0 Thompson Twins 0 Thompson Twins were a British music group that formed in April 1977. Initially a new wave group, they switched to a more mainstream pop sound and achieved considerable popularity in the mid-1980s, ... 0 Talk Talk 0 Talk Talk were an English new wave band, active from 1981 until their breakup in 1992. Their early hit singles include "Today", "Talk Talk", "It's My Life" and "Such a Shame". Although the band onl... 0 A Flock Of Seagulls 0 A Flock of Seagulls are an English new wave and synthpop band originally formed in 1980 in Liverpool by Michael "Mike" Score and his brother Alister "Ali" James Score; with their most famous line-u...

0 ABC 0 One of the most popular new wave bands of the early '80s, the British group ABC built upon the detached, synthesized R&B pop of David Bowie and Roxy Music, adding a self-conscious, campy sense of t... 0 Depeche Mode 0 Depeche Mode /dᵻˌpɛʃˈmoʊd/ are an English electronic band that formed in 1980 in Basildon, Essex. The group's original line-up consisted of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher, and Vince Clarke.... 0 Spandau Ballet 0 Spandau Ballet /ˈspændaʊ ˈbæl.eɪ/ are an English band formed in London in 1979. The band were inspired by, and an integral part of, the New Romantic movement. They became one of the most successful... 0 The Human League 0 The Human League are an English electronic new wave band formed in Sheffield in 1977. After signing to Virgin Records in 1979, the band released two albums and a string of singles before attaining ... 0 Roland Orzabal 0 Roland Orzabal is a British musician, songwriter and record producer.

He is known mainly as a co-founding member of Tears for Fears, of which he is the main songwriter and joint vocalist, but he ha... 0 a-ha 0 A-ha is a Norwegian band formed in Oslo in 1982. The band was founded by Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen and Pål Waaktaar-Savoy. The group rose to fame during the mid-1980s after being discovered b... 0 Kajagoogoo 0 Kajagoogoo /kædʒəˈɡuːɡuː/ are a British new wave band, best known for their hit single, "Too Shy", which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart, and the Top 10 in numerous other countries. 0 Arcadia 0 Arcadia were a new wave British group formed in 1985 by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, and Roger Taylor of Duran Duran as a side project during a break in that band's schedule. The project was only act...

0 OMD - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 0 Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are an English electronic music band formed in Wirral, Merseyside in 1978. Spawned by earlier group The Id, the outfit was founded by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humph... 0 Frankie Goes To Hollywood 0 Frankie Goes to Hollywood, formed in 1980, were a British band popular in the mid-1980s. The group was fronted by Holly Johnson, with Paul Rutherford, Peter Gill, Mark O'Toole, and Brian Nash. The ... BBC NEWS | Entertainment | My Music: Tears For Fears My Music: Tears For Fears Reunited: Tears For Fears' Curt Smith (left) and Roland Orzabal Pop duo Tears For Fears scored their first hit, Mad World, in 1982, and went on to fill the decade with numerous hits. Subsequent well-known hits Shout and Everybody Wants To Rule The World went on to top the US charts.

But a shift in musical style on 1989 album Sowing The Seeds Of Love saw Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith's popularity wane, and Smith quit the band in 1992. A haunting cover of Mad World by Gary Jules was the surprise Christmas No 1 in 2003, prompting the reunion of the partnership. Curt Smith spoke about the band's return to the charts and some of his musical preferences. Is the reunion just a one-off project or are Tears For Fears back together for the long-term? Only time will tell. Do you hope to please long-standing fans or attract a new legion of supporters with this new project? We really did it to please ourselves, although we have discovered that it appeals to old and new fans alike. What was your reaction to the Gary Jules and Michael Andrews' cover of Mad World and its phenomenal success? We both love their version, in fact it's better than ours and we were really happy for them. Tears For Fears rose to prominence in the early 1980s What are the main differences between the music industry now and when you were last together back in 1989?

The industry is now run primarily by four conglomerates who are not really into artist development. Quarterly results are their main concern so consequently bands aren't really given a chance to grow naturally. If you organised a festival, who would be your headline and supporting acts - they can be alive or dead. Prince would always be the headliner - he's put on some of the best live shows I've ever seen. Frank Zappa on the bill would be great. As far as support acts go, I would pick up-and-coming bands like Kings Of Convenience and Modest Mouse. What was the first record that you ever bought? Alive by Slade Tears For Fears No. 1 For Second Week With `Shout` - tribunedigital-chicagotribune Tears For Fears No. 1 For Second Week With `Shout` August 09, 1985|By Jan DeKnock. For the second week in a row, the British duo of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith--better known to rock fans as Tears for Fears--is at the top of the American singles charts with their big single ``Shout.`` That`s the good news.

The bad news for Tears for Fears is that they lost their bid for a second straight chart ``double,`` because their album ``Songs From the Big Chair`` was dropped to No. 2 after four weeks at the top. The new No. 1 album is ``Reckless`` by Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, who has scored yet another impressive chart comeback. The first came in June, when Adams` ballad ``Heaven`` hit No. 1 on the singles list after having made little impact when it was first released in 1983. An even bigger surprise is the recent resurgence of ``Reckless,`` which got only as high as No. 6 last January and then quickly dropped out of the Top 10. But the saturation airplay for ``Heaven`` sparked new interest in ``Reckless.`` The album started climbing again--which rarely happens on the charts--and by early July had finally cracked the Top 5. Though the belated success of ``Reckless`` was helped by the release of yet another hit single (``Summer of `69,`` now No. 15), there`s another factor at work.

With few real blockbuster albums released this summer--particularly by mainstream rock acts--record buyers are stocking up on older releases. That`s why ``Reckless`` has just now hit No. 1 in its 38th week on the charts, Bruce Springsteen`s ``Born in the U.S.A.`` is still at No. 5 in its 60th week and Survivor`s ``Vital Signs`` is holding strong at No. 24 after 46 weeks. Over on the singles charts, look for Tears for Fears` ``Shout`` to have one more week at No. 1, although there will be tough competition from this week`s No. 5 song, ``The Power of Love`` by Huey Lewis & the News, and the No. 3 entry, Sting`s ``If You Love Somebody Set Them Free.`` Repeating at No. 2 was Paul Young`s ``Everytime You Go Away,`` a former No. 1 that added another honor this week: No. 1 on the adult contemporary list. Here are predictions for next week`s singles charts (last week, this column placed two of the Top 10 songs in the correct positions): 1. ``Shout,`` 2.

``The Power of Love,`` 3. ``If You Love Somebody Set Them Free,`` 4. ``Never Surrender,`` 5. ``Everytime You Go Away,`` 6. ``Freeway of Love,`` 7. ``Who`s Holding Donna Now,`` 8. ``Glory Days,`` 9. ``St. Elmo`s Fire,`` 10. ``Summer of `69.`` This week, there are two pick hits. The first is ``Dress You Up`` by Madonna, who continues her string of hits with another winning dance track. Look for this single to do especially well--possibly even No. 1--because for the first time in months, there is just one Madonna song for radio stations to concentrate on, instead of several. The other pick hit is Eurythmics` ``There Must Be an Angel,`` a sweet, lilting song that shows off Annie Lennox`s voice to great advantage. This single already has hit No. 1 in Britain, and should make at least the Top 10 in America.

MORE: Discog Fever - Rating and Reviewing Every Tears for Fears Album — The Great Albums Jeff Fiedler by Jeff Fiedler Discog Fever is a regular feature on thegreatalbums.com, rating and reviewing a band's entire catalogue of studio albums. They only recorded three albums together during their original run from 1983 to 1989, but the duo of Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal, better known by the name Tears for Fears, has lived on as one of the most fondly-remembered acts of the ‘80s. Their early single “Mad World” has been a popular cover song in recent years (even making it into the Top 40 for the first time via a cover by Adam Lambert), while the most famous of the duo’s own recordings, especially “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and “Shout,” are enduring radio staples.

The duo parted ways at the end of the decade, Orzabal going on to release two more studio albums under the Tears for Fears name (while both a hits disc and an odds-and-ends package compiling B-sides and rarities from the group’s ‘80s heyday, would both be released in the ‘90s as well.) The estranged duo would unexpectedly reunite in 2003 to release a new studio album and do an extensive round of television appearances and live performances to promote it. While the duo has yet to release a proper follow-up, they still continue to delight audiences by performing together on the road, the two men sounding just as good as they ever have and clearly having a lot of fun making music together again. You may or may not already have the big-selling Songs from the Big Chair in your collection, but what about their other discs? What other great songs might you be missing out on? Just read on as we break down and rate each of the duo’s proper discs of studio material for you. You might just discover a few new gems you’ve never heard for yourself before!

The Hurting (1983, Mercury) A - The first album from the duo of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith is also arguably its darkest. Much like John Lennon’s first proper solo album away from the Beatles (John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band), this album was deeply influenced by the writings of psychiatrist Arthur Janov, so it’s not exactly a happy album, lyrically speaking. Yet, from a musical standpoint, it’s actually more commercial than Lennon’s similarly Janov-inspired outing was, so it’s noticeably easier to listen to for that reason, and there are some fairly strong melodies here, particularly on “Pale Shelter,” “Change,” “Suffer the Children,” and the album’s true masterpiece, “Mad World,” later covered to great success by Michael Andrews and Gary Jules for the soundtrack to Donnie Darko and by Adam Lambert, who took the song into the Top 40. The album wasn’t a huge commercial success in the U.S., but it remains one of the quintessential albums from the duo and hints at their even greater potential to come.

Songs from the Big Chair (1985, Mercury) A + The band’s most commercially successful album, their sophomore outing yielded two timeless Number One hits in the cavernous epic “Shout” and the slinky guitar pop of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” easily one of the greatest mainstream-pop singles to come out of the ‘80s and a record sporting not just one, but two, truly unforgettable guitar solos. There are also two more notable Top 40 hits included here, the propulsive and very underrated “Mothers Talk” and the emotionally charged “Head Over Heels,” which would’ve been great even without the drum solo and subsequent gospel-flavored vamp-out that just adds to the dramatic force of the piece.

The non-hits here may lack any obvious hooks, but they also leave a strong dramatic impression, especially the jazzy ballad “I Believe” and “The Working Hour.” The Seeds of Love (1989, Fontana) A + It wasn’t nearly as commercially successful as its predecessor, but from a sheer artistic standpoint, the band very nearly tops themselves here, and this album, despite lacking any hits or recognizable songs on its still-excellent second side, truly needs to be listened to in its entirely at least once. It’s just a stunningly ambitious album that also boasts a production that’s elaborate enough to hold your attention even as the hooks start to subside. (The gorgeous, album-closing “Famous Last Words” will surely give you chills.) One of the critical ingredients to the album’s success is the duo’s discovery of R&B singer Oleta Adams (later to score a major Top Ten hit on her own with her jaw-droppingly powerful and jazzy rendition of the Brenda Russell ballad “Get Here”), who they employ to stunning effect on the album-opening ballad “Woman in Chains,” which also wisely employs the services of Phil Collins behind the drumkit.

It’s not the most obviously commercial of songs, but it remains one of the group’s most impressive singles, if just for its sheer emotional impact. The album’s biggest hit is the epic Beatles homage “Sowing the Seeds of Love,” which plays like “All You Need Is Love,” “Hey Jude,” “Penny Lane,” “I Am the Walrus,” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” all rolled into one, and it’s deliriously fun to spot all the musical nods to the Fab Four. The most underrated song here may be the incredibly sophisticated jazz-pop of “Advice for the Young at Heart,” which sounds very little like anything else in the duo’s catalog (it’s more reminiscent of, say, Prefab Sprout’s “Appetite” or “When Love Breaks Down”) and takes them into much more adult-contemporary-oriented territory than usual, but it’s also a truly impressive demonstration of the duo’s versatility and their compositional ability. It may not be as hook-heavy a disc as Big Chair, but this might very well be the band’s artistic masterpiece.

Elemental (1993, Mercury) B – Essentially a Roland Orzabal solo album in everything but name, this is the first Tears for Fears album following an acrimonious falling-out that led to Curt Smith quitting the duo. Naturally, his presence is missed (he, after all, sang lead on some of the duo’s greatest songs, most prominently “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”), but this album surprisingly actually ends up being pretty decent considering his absence, and the disc even yielded a modest Top 40 hit in the anthemic march of “Break It Down Again,” one of the most underrated Tears for Fears singles and one that truly needs to be heard if you’re not familiar with it.

The album is definitely more spotty than the albums that preceded it and comes off a little mean-spirited in the bitter tone of its lyrics, but there’s also more to this album than just the hit single, and there are a handful of really solid album cuts here, namely “Brian Wilson Said,” “Fish Out of Water,” and the truly gorgeous “Goodnight Song.” Raoul and the Kings of Spain (1995, Epic) D + Easily the most alienating of all the Tears for Fears albums, this is simply an experimental outing that just doesn’t work. It wants to be as artistic as The Seeds of Love – even to the point of bringing Oleta Adams back for a cameo on “Me and My Big Ideas” – but it lacks both the radio-friendly hooks and the ambitious and intricate soundscapes of The Seeds of Love to grab your attention in the first place, and the album consequently comes off as more pretentious than illuminating (especially on the strange title cut and “Los Reyes Catolicos”), and though there are some lyrical themes and motifs that recur throughout the album, the album never really seems to come together from a musical standpoint and seems somewhat disjointed.

That might not matter so much if the songs were at least catchy, but the most memorable cut here is the single “God’s Mistake,” which isn’t bad but it’s also a shockingly mediocre single by Tears for Fears standards, and you can’t help but wish there were some cuts here as strong as “Break It Down Again” from the album before it. Saturnine Martial & Lunatic (1996, Mercury) B – Not actually an album of new material, this disc actually rounds up most, though not all, of the studio-recorded B-sides and rarities from 1983 to 1993 that were previously unavailable on LP. It’s a testament to just how good the band was in its first ten years that even a collection largely comprised of B-sides from that period ends up being a surprisingly decent album.

Highlights include a top-notch cover of David Bowie’s “Ashes to Ashes,” the 1983 non-LP single “The Way You Are,” the Threesome soundtrack contribution “New Star,” and the Robert Wyatt cover (and “Mothers Talk” B-side) “Sea Song.” Everybody Loves a Happy Ending (2003, New Door) A Easily the most fun Tears for Fears album since The Seeds of Love, this album also marks the on-disc reunion of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith for the first time in over a decade, and it’s a much-welcome one. The duo picks up right where it left off, even creating a sequel of sorts to “Sowing the Seeds of Love” in the equally Beatles-flavored “Closest Thing to Heaven.” The album is overflowing with fun and appealing moments, including the title cut, “Who Killed Tangerine?,” and the gorgeous McCartney-esque epic “Secret World,” which brilliantly incorporates, of all things, a trumpet solo that you never see coming but ends up fitting in absolutely perfectly. Best of all is the incredibly playful and sunny “Call Me Mellow,” one of the most immediately catchy and effervescent singles the duo has ever crafted.

You can’t help but notice throughout the album just how creatively refreshed both men are and just how much joy the two men audibly seem to be having together in the studio again after so many years apart. The duo sadly has yet to create a follow-up to this album (though they’ve played together live quite a bit in the intervening years), but if they never make another full-length, this is surely a fine way for the duo to go out on record. If only more estranged bands could put their differences aside and put together a reunion album as good as this one is! This one is definitely not to be missed. Tears for Fears (Music) - TV Tropes Tears for Fears You need to login to do this. Get Known if you don't have an account Share Left - Roland Orzabal. Right - Curt Smith. "Shout, shout, let it all out, These are the things I can do without, Come on, Come on." — "Shout" Tears for Fears is a British duo consisting of the core members Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, although plenty of other musicians have been involved in the project throughout the years, many as named members of the band.

The band, which was named for a primal therapy technique, formed in 1981, and like a lot of 1980's pop bands, they haven't had much success since the 1990's; in fact, Smith left the band in 1992, making the band essentially Orzabal's solo project . Smith rejoined in 2001 (contrary to certain reports in the media, the renewed attention to their music due to "Head Over Heels" and a cover of "Mad World" being used in Donnie Darko was not the cause of this; they had already been in contact before this point and decided to restart the band) and Tears for Fears put out a new album in 2004. This band's three most famous songs come from their 1985 album Songs from the Big Chair.

At least, these are the three songs that you hear on the radio all the time and in "best of the 80's" compilation albums as of February 19, 2010: "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" "Shout" "Head over Heels" Of course, many fans over at their Last.FM page would have you believe otherwise, and, to be fair, those three are far from the band's only songs to get radio airplay; their other well-known hits include "Mad World", "Pale Shelter", "Change", "Advice for the Young at Heart", "Sowing the Seeds of Love", "Woman in Chains", and "Break It Down Again". Besides Songs from the Big Chair, Orzabal and Smith did release three other albums. First there was The Hurting in 1983, which sounds more like an angst-ridden Depeche Mode album; this is where the single "Mad World" came from, which later got a more popular cover version by Gary Jules that was used on the Donnie Darko soundtrack. Second was the aforementioned Songs from the Big Chair.

The Seeds of Love came about in 1989, and was a lot more experimental, psychedelic and rockier than the previous albums, though it did spawn a couple of hits ("Sowing the Seeds of Love" and "Woman in Chains"). After their breakup, Roland Orzabal would release two essentially solo albums under the band's name (with collaborators Alan Griffiths and, on Elemental, Tim Palmer co-producing and providing additional instrumentation; Griffiths also co-wrote most of the songs on these albums), before Smith rejoined the band and they released the reunion album Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, which picked up where Seeds left off. Orzabal and Smith are currently in the studio recording new material, which Orzabal has described as darker and more dramatic, describing one song as "a combination of Portishead and Queen ". The band recently released a cover of Arcade Fire 's "Ready to Start" on SoundCloud, and they are planning to release a new album in 2017.

1985 - Songs from the Big Chair 1989 - The Seeds of Love 1992 - Tears Roll Down* 1995 - Raoul and the Kings of Spain** 1996 - Saturnine Martial & Lunatic*** 2004 - Everybody Loves a Happy Ending * is a greatest hits album, which includes the single "Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)", which only appears on compilations and which is the first song Orzabal recorded as Tears for Fears without Smith. ** denotes album recorded without Smith. *** is a rarities collection spanning from 1983 to 1993. Shout...shout...let it all out. These are the tropes I could do without: Album Title Drop : Apart from in the Title Track , Raoul and the Kings of Spain features another one in "Los reyes católicos (reprise)". Similarly, The Seeds of Love receives one not only in "Sowing the Seeds of Love" but also in "Badman's Song" ("At least the seeds of love will be sown"). Apocalypse How / World War III : "Famous Last Words" describes a planetary class 3.

Word of God says it's a nuclear holocaust. Arc Words : The phrase "The sun and the moon, the wind and the rain" appears in no less than three different songs on The Seeds of Love. They also appear in the band's live cover of "All You Need Is Love", featured on Going to California. These things are also displayed on the cover. This was the working title for the album but changed because of the popularity of the single "Sowing the Seeds of Love". Babies Make Everything Better : Both Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal have credited the birth of their children as the main reason they calmed down. With kids to care for, music became less of a pressure and stressor. Curt Smith: ï¿½You have something at home thatï¿½s far bigger and far more important than any of this business crap. The upbringing of my two daughters is far more important than any Tears For Fears record. Now making music is more enjoyable because itï¿½s a release and a joy. Thatï¿½s the way it should be.ï¿½ Baroque Pop : On The Seeds of Love and Everybody Loves a Happy Ending.

To a lesser extent, some of Elemental could also be considered to fall into this. B-Side : Most of their singles have non-album B-Sides. They in fact never used an album track as a B-Side (unless it was an alternate version). A generous 18 of these were collected on the B-Sides compilation Saturnine Martial & Lunatic. It was initially intended only as a US release to fulfil their record contract there and save costly imports, but was later pressed in the UK and Europe too due to demand. Call Back / Call Forward : These are scattered throughout their lyrics. For example, "Advice for the Young at Heart" refers to the previous album's "The Working Hour", while "Badman's Song" makes a lyrical reference to the following song, "Sowing the Seeds of Love". The song title "Secret World" also appears in "Advice for the Young at Heart", three albums earlier, although it's more likely the former is a reference to the latter than the other way around. Meanwhile, the band's live cover of "All You Need Is Love" mentions Raoul and the Kings of Spain several years before the release of the album of the same title.

Canon Discontinuity : They vetoed the inclusion of the B-Side "Saxophones as Opiates" from the reissue of The Hurting, just because they thought it was cheesy. They did include the B-Side "Wino" which had never been on CD before, though a large part of the reason was that the record company forgot about the "Suffer the Children" single. Their cover of Radiohead's Creep did not appear on the Raoul And The Kings Of Spain reissue, which otherwise included all the B-Sides. It was partly for time reasons and partly for cost of licensing, but nevertheless, could easily be forgotten due to the rarity of those singles. Careful with That Axe : Orzabal has a pretty effective scream when he wants to use it. The end of the album version of "Sowing the Seeds of Love" contains some good examples. Raoul and the Kings of Spain "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams" Cover Version : The band has covered Robert Wyatt's "Sea Song", David Bowie 's "Ashes to Ashes", and Radiohead 's "Creep". The band's own "Mad World" was later Covered Up by Gary Jules.

In 2013, they covered Arcade Fire 's "Ready to Start", Hot Chip's "(And I Was a) Boy from School" and Animal Collective 's "My Girls" and released them on Soundcloud as a trial run for new material. They were quite well received. They later released them as a Record Store Day exclusive vinyl EP called "Ready Boys and Girls", which was only released in the US , much to the frustration of UK and other international fans. Live, the band has covered quite a few other songs as well, including the gospel hymn/jazz standard "When the Saints Go Marching In" (most famous in Louis Armstrong 's version, probably) and The Beatles ' "All You Need Is Love" (with altered lyrics). Downer Ending : The Seeds of Love ends with "Famous Last Words", which is pure Tear Jerker . (Considering that it's about a couple perishing in each other's arms during a nuclear holocaust, it'd pretty much have to be).

Some of the band's other albums also end this way, including "Goodnight Song" from Elemental, about how the singer no longer feels like his music is artistically successful, and "Los reyes católicos (reprise)" from Raoul and the Kings of Spain, which isn't that much of a downer lyrically but is quite downbeat musically. Epic Rocking : From Songs from the Big Chair, "Shout" is 6:35, "The Working Hour" is 6:34, and "Listen" is 6:55. "Shout" was frequently even longer when performed live (the Going to California version runs for around nine minutes), and some re-releases of the album have extended mixes of some of the songs which also, naturally, fall into this trope. From The Seeds of Love, more than half the album qualifies. The longest song is "Badman's Song", which clocks in at 8:33, and was even longer still live (the Going to California version runs for over eleven minutes).

Other lengthy songs include "Year of the Knife" (6:55), "Woman in Chains" (6:30), "Sowing the Seeds of Love" (6:19), and "Swords and Knives" (6:20). From Elemental, "Mr. Pessimist" runs for 6:17. Exactly What It Says on the Tin : Everybody Loves a Happy Ending is the album released after the duo reunited and rekindled their friendship and accurately describes their own and their fans reaction to this development. The entire second side of Songs from the Big Chair, starting with "I Believe". The last three songs on The Seeds of Love. Elemental: "Dog's a Best Friend's Dog" -> "Fish Out of Water", "Gas Giants" -> "Power" -> "Brian Wilson Said".

Raoul and the Kings of Spain: "Raoul and the Kings of Spain" -> "Falling Down", "God's Mistake" -> "Sketches of Pain", "Los reyes católicos" -> "Sorry" -> "Humdrum and Humble", "I Choose You" -> "Don't Drink the Water", "Me and My Big Ideas" -> "Los reyes católicos (reprise)" Everybody Loves a Happy Ending: "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending" -> "Closest Thing to Heaven", "Who You Are" ->" The Devil", "Secret World" -> "Killing with Kindness" -> "Ladybird" Goth : The album The Hurting has a significant gothic influence, as does the period B-side "The Conflict". Gratuitous Spanish : Raoul and the Kings of Spain features Spanish lyrics in "Los reyes católicos" and its reprise.

The song title is grammatically correct Spanish for "The Catholic Kings", but is not pronounced correctly for at least most dialects of the language, though this may be to fit the rhythm of the lyrics (the stress in "católicos" should be on the "ó", which is what the acute accent indicates, and it should be a long vowel sound). Homage / Musical Pastiche : Word of God admits that "Sowing the Seeds of Love" and "Schrödinger's Cat" are both pastiches of " I Am the Walrus " (Orzabal also notes that the piano break on "Schrödinger" is "reminiscent of [Thunderclap Newman's] 'Something in the Air'"). These were far from the only Beatles pastiches the group recorded; large parts of The Seeds of Love and Everybody Loves a Happy Ending bear clear Beatles influence (although maybe not quite this clear). "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending" and "Who Killed Tangerine?" could almost be lost Beatles tracks, for example.

" Brian Wilson Said", as might be expected from the title, is a The Beach Boys pastiche (it also alludes to Van Morrison 's track "Jackie Wilson Said", which appears on Saint Dominic's Preview, though if there is any other Morrison influence on the track, it's oblique at most). The clearest influence on the song is "Good Vibrations", but it contains several other references, both musical and lyrical, to Wilson's work as well (such as to "California Girls"). With "Lord of Karma", Orzabal says the group were "trying to get somewhere between the Happy Mondays and Jimi Hendrix 's 'Crosstown Traffic'". "I Believe" is such a clear Robert Wyatt homage that the band covered his track "Sea Song" for the B-side. The album's liner notes further lampshaded it by stating "Dedicated to Robert Wyatt (if he's listening)", referencing the song "Dedicated to You But You Weren't Listening" by Soft Machine , which Wyatt was previously a member of. Orzabal admitted that he was listening to Art Of Noise when "Empire Building" was recorded.

I Am the Band : Orzabal is the only well-known band member on Elemental and Raoul and the Kings of Spain. "Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)", which was a minor (at least compared to the three songs listed in the band bio) hit, also falls under this trope. However, Alan Griffiths co-wrote almost all the songs from this period with Orzabal, and provided additional instrumentation and co-produced the albums (Tim Palmer also provided additional instrumentation on and co-produced Elemental). Griffiths also worked on Orzabal's solo album Tomcats Screaming Outside, but was not involved with Everybody Loves a Happy Ending. In the Style of... : "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams" is essentially the lyrics of "Sowing the Seeds of Love" rapped over the chord pattern of "Shout" in a trip-hop style with "a Talking Heads -style chorus". Large Ham : Orzabal. He was a bit of a ham back in the days of Songs from the Big Chair, but interestingly enough, he older he got, the hammier he was. Smith, while more understated at times, still had his moments. But they are both twice as hammy when performing live.

Last of His Kind : Roland Orzabal, for whatever reason, wanted to keep the band alive so much that, during the 1990's, almost all of his solo work would be released under the band's name . Tomcats Screaming Outside, which he made in 2001, was his only album that he released under his name (perhaps because it's Something Completely Different : it's a Drum And Bass album). Literary Allusion Title : As mentioned below, "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams" is named after a work by Sylvia Plath . Loudness War : Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, as well as all their remasters. Fans were justifiably annoyed about the brickwalling of The Hurting reissue because it included many tracks that were on CD for the first time, but it turns out the band wanted them mastered that way. Averted by the original releases of the early albums; the original release of The Seeds of Love, for example, is DR13. Probably a case of Keep Circulating the Tapes . Magical Seventh Son : Referenced in "Raoul and the Kings of Spain": When the seventh son of the seventh son Comes along and breaks the chains...

New Sound Album : Basically all of them. Songs from the Big Chair expanded the original album's synth-pop template with influence from jazz and electronica (as well as a Robert Wyatt-style ballad in "I Believe"). The Seeds of Love took influence from '70s Progressive Rock and '60s psychedelia , particularly The Beatles . It also upped the jazz influence and threw in some world, new age, and gospel music influence for good measure. Elemental had a slicker modern sound with a more cinematic scope. Raoul and the Kings of Spain was a Concept Album about Orzabal's Spanish heritage and incorporated a lot of influence from flamenco and other styles (although this was not present on every track). Everybody Loves a Happy Ending went back to the psychedelia-influenced sound of The Seeds of Love, but was in general substantially brighter and more modern. Protest Song : "Shout" is a bit of a meta example; the lyrics themselves don't actually protest anything in particular, but they encourage protest. Curt Smith also indicates that the song "encourages people not to do things without actually questioning them.

People act without thinking because that's just the way things go in society." Played straighter on some other songs, such as "Sowing the Seeds of Love", which is an attack on the Thatcher government. On the same album "Woman in Chains" protests patriarchy, "Famous Last Words" could be interpreted as protesting nuclear war, and "Standing on the Corner of the Third World" attacks globalisation. Maybe. Though it's not obvious in the song , "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" was originally conceived as a commentary on the Cold War. Orzabal noted the original title was "Everybody Wants to Go to War", which producer Chris Hughes nixed as not catchy enough. "Sketches of Pain" is a pun on Miles Davis ' Sketches of Spain . "Brian Wilson Said" refers to The Beach Boys ' Brian Wilson , the song's main influence, as well as Van Morrison 's song "Jackie Wilson Said". Psychedelic Rock , Progressive Rock : These were both major influences on The Seeds of Love. Everybody Loves a Happy Ending also bears strong psychedelic rock influence, and there is some psychedelic influence on Elemental as well.

Putting the Band Back Together : After many years of estrangement it was routine paperwork that led to the reunion. Smith flew in from the USA to see Orzabal as he had to sign off on something Orzabal had signed. They ended up having dinner together and that led to the reconciliation. Rearrange the Song : This has been done several times. "Pharaohs", the B-side to "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", incorporates the main melody of the song at its end, but it is much slower and instrumental (although it features a spoken word voice reading what appear to be weather forecasts). "Tears Roll Down" and "Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)" share melodic and rhythmic elements, but the former is almost entirely instrumental and is mostly in 7/4, while the latter features a traditional chorus/verse structure and is mostly in 4/4 (though it uses polyrhythms). "Break It Down Again" and "Raoul and the Kings of Spain" were given acoustic arrangements for B-sides; these were later included on the reissue of Raoul.

"Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams" uses the chord sequence of "Shout" and the lyrics of "Sowing the Seeds of Love", and is performed in a Trip Hop style with "a Talking Heads -style chorus". "The Working Hour" reuses the melody of the much more minimalistic and downbeat "When in Love with a Blind Man". The band has taken to performing Gary Jules' arrangement of "Mad World" when playing it live recently. Sampling : "The Body Wah" is constructed around a sample of a woman describing "a well-known female politician" with the words, "Because she has power, she has personality". "Elemental" is constructed around a sample of a guitar using the wah-wah pedal from the band's own "Lord of Karma". "Empire Building" is constructed around a two-second sample of an early Simple Minds track "Today I Died Again". Intentionally or not, the title can be seen as both a reference to the album "Today" was on (Empires and Dance) and the fact that the song is built from the sample. The dialogue in "The Big Chair" is sampled from the film Sybil , which inspired it.

Science Is Bad : "Schrödinger's Cat" and "Deja Vu & the Sins of Science". Shout-Out : The band name is a reference to primal therapy. Also, in Shout, they take this trope literally . "The Big Chair" (which also inspired the title Songs from the Big Chair, although it does not appear on the original album) is inspired by the film Sybil and samples it. "Empire Building" is inspired by Breaker Morant , a film about The Second Boer War . "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams", a Trip Hop remake of "Sowing the Seeds of Love" and "Shout" (with what Orzabal describes as "a Talking Heads -style chorus"), derives its title from a book by Sylvia Plath . "Dog's a Best Friend's Dog" contains a reference to Waiting for Godot . It may or may not be mispronounced depending on whether Beckett intended the name to be pronounced as in French (accounts apparently differ, but since the play itself was written in French, it's likely, in which case Orzabal did mispronounce it). "Don't Drink the Water" drops in a reference to Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

"Out of Control" (a bonus track available only on the UK release of Everybody Loves a Happy Ending) also references Frida Kahlo. "Sketches of Pain" is a Pun-Based Title referring to Miles Davis ' Sketches of Spain . Given the Spanish theme of Raoul and the notable flamenco influence on "Sketches" in particular, it fits. "Sowing the Seeds of Love" is apparently named after an obscure English folk song called, well, "The Seeds of Love". The song also refers to The Jam , the Style Council, and MC5 's Kick Out the Jams . Siamese Twin Songs : On "Songs from the Big Chair", the sixth track, "Broken", segues directly into the seventh track, "Head over Heels", which itself segues directly into a reprise of "Broken". These latter two are almost always played together on the radio and live, and sometimes the "Broken" reprise isn't even noted on the track listing. Depending upon how one defines the trope, quite a few of the band's other song transitions can also qualify; these are listed above under Fading into the Next Song . Phil Collins plays the drums on "Woman in Chains".

Legendary trumpeter and world musician Jon Hassell plays on "Standing on the Corner of the Third World". Oleta Adams sings guest vocals on "Woman in Chains", "Badman's Song", and "Me and My Big Ideas", as well as some live versions of "I Believe" (see Going to California for one example). She also plays piano on "Badman's Song" and "Standing on the Corner of the Third World". Orzabal and Smith are basically responsible for discovering her. Information on most of the band members apart from Orzabal and Smith can be found here , although it looks like it hasn't been updated since shortly after the release of Everybody Loves a Happy Ending. Take That : "Badman's Song" is this to some members of the band who were criticising Orzabal, whilst staying in a hotel room next to his. They thought he couldn't hear them, but the walls were thin. Perhaps as a Take That at Curt Smith, the cover of the "Break It Down Again" single features Orzabal holding a bunch of wilted sunflowers. The previous album The Seeds of Love and singles associated with it feature sunflowers.

It could be said that the wilted sunflowers are a reference to the end of his friendship with Curt. "Fish Out of Water" from Elemental is a Take That at Curt Smith, who later responded with "Sun King," from his Mayfield album. "Sowing the Seeds of Love" is a Take That at the Margaret Thatcher government. Uncommon Time : "Tears Roll Down" is mostly in 7/8. One of the riffs from this song reappears in "Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)" for brief periods, but it's used as a polyrhythm and the song is in 4/4. The chorus of "Ladybird" jumps all over the place (if you're wondering, the exact pattern is two bars of 5/8, one bar of 9/8, two bars of 5/8, then one bar of 6/8). The rest of the song is in standard 6/8.

:: Indexes :: Bryan Adams Hits The Top Of Album List - tribunedigital-orlandosentinel Bryan Adams Hits The Top Of Album List August 11, 1985|By Jan DeKnock, Chicago Tribune For the second week in a row, the British duo of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith -- better known as Tears for Fears -- is at the top of the American singles chart with their big single ''Shout.'' That's the good news. The bad news for Tears for Fears is that they lost their bid for a second straight chart ''double,'' because their album Songs from the Big Chair dropped to No. 2 after four weeks at the top. The new No. 1 album is Reckless by Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, who now has scored yet another impressive chart comeback. The first came in June, when Adams' ballad ''Heaven'' hit No. 1 on the singles list after having made little impact when it was first released in 1983. An even bigger surprise is the recent resurgence of Reckless, which got only as high as No. 6 last January and then quickly dropped out of the Top 10.

But the saturation airplay for ''Heaven'' sparked new interest in Reckless. The album started climbing again -- which rarely happens on the chart -- and by early July had finally cracked the Top 5. Though the belated success of Reckless was helped by the release of yet another hit single (''Summer of '69,'' now No. 15), there's another factor at work. With few real blockbuster albums released this summer -- particularly by mainstream rock acts -- record buyers are now stocking up on older releases. That's why Reckless has just now hit No. 1 in its 38th week on the chart, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A. is still at No. 5 in its 60th week and Survivor's Vital Signs is holding strong at No. 24 after 46 weeks. Over on the singles chart, look for Tears for Fears' ''Shout'' to have one more week at No. 1, although there will be tough competition from this week's No. 5 song, ''The Power of Love'' by Huey Lewis & the News, and the No. 3 entry, Sting's ''If You Love Somebody, Set Them Free.'' Repeating at No.

2 was Paul Young's ''Everytime You Go Away,'' a former No. 1. This week, there are two pick hits. The first is ''Dress You Up'' by Madonna, who continues her string of hits with another winning dance track. Look for this single to do especially well -- possibly even No. 1 -- because for the first time in months, there is just one Madonna song for radio stations to concentrate on, instead of several. The other pick hit is the Eurythmics' ''There Must Be an Angel,'' a sweet, lilting song that shows off Annie Lennox's voice to great advantage. This single already has hit No. 1 in Britain, and should make at least the Top 10 in America. MORE:

Question: Curt Smith and Roland Orzabel are better known as which duo
Answer: Tears For Fears