Tears For Fears

Tears For Fears only released three albums in the decade ‘they’ call the 1980s and then promptly split up (for a while, at least). But what albums they are!

The Hurting (1983), Songs From The Big Chair (1985) and The Seeds of Love (1989) were all hit records but offer the listener something different each time.

Their debut was dark, bedsit, indie-synth-pop. Virtually every song was written by Roland Orzabal on his own with an acoustic guitar, as he channeled his repressed childhood pain and how to resolve it via Arthur Janov’s ‘Primal Therapy’. It features the hits ‘Mad World’, ‘Pale Shelter’ and ‘Change’.

With Songs From The Big Chair Roland says they had “let go of the Tears For Fears ideology” and adds “there wasn’t the difficult second album syndrome –  it was an easy second album syndrome”. The sound was expanded with electric guitars, and Shout and Everybody Wants To Rule The World both got to number one in the American charts.

The well documented Seeds of Love sessions dragged on and on, and while only Sowing The Seeds of Love was a major hit, the proggy, somewhat indulgent, Seventies rock stylings were totally out of step for the time but have aged remarkably well with Seeds being many fans’ favourite.