Tears For Fears – The Tipping Point (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 42:22 minutes | 494 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Concord Records
Some forty years into one of music’s most impactful, sometimes tense and yet curiously enduring partnerships, Tears For Fears have finally arrived together at The Tipping Point – the group’s ambitious, accomplished and surprising first new studio album in nearly two decades.
And now, at very long last, Tears For Fears find themselves back in peak form at The Tipping Point, an inspired song cycle that speaks powerfully and artfully to our present tense here in 2021. This is an album that vividly recalls the depth and emotional force of the group’s earliest triumphs. Imagine a far more outward-looking take on TFF’s famously introspective 1983 debut album The Hurting set in an even more mad world, or 1985’s Songs From The Big Chair bravely confronting even bigger issues in our increasingly unruly world. Or even 1989’s The Seeds Of Love that sows a mix of love and other emotions.
The Tipping Point is the bold, beautiful and powerful sound of Tears For Fears finding themselves together all over again.
For their first album in 18 years, Tears for Fears sound completely revitalized and as beautiful and engaging as ever. Remarkably, it’s fueled in part by the 2017 death of Roland Orzabal’s wife and partner of many years and his denial about losing her. “I think that when you’ve been close to someone for decades, they are living within you as well as without,” he has said. “And consciously I did not believe she would die, though subconsciously I was, without doubt, preparing for the inevitable, arming myself against the future shock.” The title track is shimmering and mysterious, with strident drums and alien beeps but also vocals like a soothing balm. “Winter done, they’ll soon be gone/ From this unforgiving place/ To that vague and distant void/ Where the sunlight splits the eye,” Orzabal sings of that threshold from life to death. It is heartbreaking, but also hopeful. “Please Be Happy” is incredibly candid—and one of their prettiest tracks: “These days it’s like a wave is breaking over you/ Dragging you in with the undertow/ If you lay among the graves you will see other ghosts.” And “No Small Thing,” about facing the heartbreak of losing your love, is a stunner. Stripped-back acoustic guitar builds to the dreamy psychedelia Tears for Fears has always done so well, the whole thing swelling to a bursting-the-seams crescendo by the end. “Long, Long, Long Time” shows how the duo have always been masters of dynamics, its hymn-like organ giving way to a monster chorus; the song also reminds you just how much Sam Smith owes Curt Smith for their angelic style. “Master Plan” giddily dips into the band’s longtime love of Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles, and “Break the Man” is catchy jangle pop touched with moody strings. “My Demons,” meanwhile, is a nasty piece of work, in the best way (one akin to Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”), with Orzabal drilling the doomed lyrics: “Why is my name in lights when my name is spelled wrong … People always find you when your cell phone is on.” Smith comes in to sweeten up the chorus, but he sounds thrillingly stretched to his limits as the rhythm gallops like a sweating horse. Put The Tipping Point on the shelf next to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking for times of crisis. – Shelly Ridenour
Tracklist:
01. Tears For Fears – No Small Thing (04:42)
02. Tears For Fears – The Tipping Point (04:13)
03. Tears For Fears – Long, Long, Long Time (04:31)
04. Tears For Fears – Break The Man (03:55)
05. Tears For Fears – My Demons (03:08)
06. Tears For Fears – Rivers Of Mercy (06:08)
07. Tears For Fears – Please Be Happy (03:05)
08. Tears For Fears – Master Plan (04:37)
09. Tears For Fears – End Of Night (03:23)
10. Tears For Fears – Stay (04:36)
