Tears for Fears Announce Their First Album in 17 Years
On October 7th Tears for Fears announced their return with their much awaited seventh album The Tipping Point. Their first new album since 2004, The Tipping Point is a reflection of the pop rock duo’s personal and professional “tipping points” and is set to arrive February 25th via Concord Records.
In anticipation, Tears for Fears duo Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith also dropped the title track and music video inspired by Orzabel’s own life and struggles with grief and the loss of a loved one. The music video, directed by Matt Mahurin, conveys the imbalance of death and disease through dark imagery.
Tears for Fears are an English pop rock band formed in Bath, England, in 1981 by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. The band’s debut album, The Hurting (1983), reached number one on the UK Albums Chart. Their second album, Songs from the Big Chair (1985), reached number one on the US Billboard 200, achieving multi-platinum status in both the UK and the US. Songs from the Big Chair contained two Billboard Hot 100 number one hits: “Shout” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World“. The latter song won the Brit Award for Best British Single in 1986.
In spite of their legendary performances, Tears for Fears opens up about their failed attempts at artistic compromise with management suggestions to work with “hit songwriters.” Ultimately, this cycle came to a halt with Orzabel stating, “That pressure and tension divided us not just from our management, but from one another too.”
This album was created alongside Tears for Fears’ longtime collaborator Charlton Pettus, with songwriters and producers Florian Reutter and Sacha Skarbek. Smith also shared, “If that balance doesn’t work on a Tears for Fears album, the whole thing just doesn’t work. To put it in simple terms, a Tears for Fears record and what people perceive to be the sound of Tears for Fears – is the stuff we can both agree on.”
Watch the video for “The Tipping Point” below:
-Aditi
