Tears for Fears: C or D?

Casual tears fans can safely steer clear of this hodgepodge

anyone heard the three bonus tracks?

― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, February 26, 2022 1:05 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

they're good as anything on the album, albeit while listening to "secret location" i wondered when exactly i had put on a tame impala record

of all three i think i would want "shame" to be on the album most, just fits the desolate world-ending sophistipop mood of the rest of the material, though it wouldn't help anyone alienated by the sleepier tempos

I haven't heard this, but I did hear the two new songs they put on Rule the World: The Greatest Hits ("Stay" seems to be on this new record as well). I got the impression of a lot of highly effortful programming and manipulation of digital files, not a lot of strong songwriting.

xp ah, thanks, good to know. It doesn't sound like it's worth tracking down the special edition then, especially as I'm kinda meh on most of the record so far

I wonder what cultural shift have occurred to give this album so much more attention than Everybody Loves a Happy Ending in 2004. Were we not ready for the TFF revival yet?

Yeah, I was thinking how funny it is that this is being treated as a big reunion when, in fact, it's a second reunion, and even then a reunion of the principals, since the band itself remained more or less active.

I think time has just been very kind to their legacy, but that didn't stretch as far as the releasing of new music last time around

I wonder this sort of thing all the time but I just assume it's occult PR stuff rather than the result of any cultural shift. Like how that most recent Neil Young album was inescapable on my timeline for some reason despite the fact that previously no one ever seemed to talk about any of the guy's previous ten million albums since 2010. The Tipping Point feels like this, too.

Well, #christgau

A lot of highly effortful programming

I love this phrase.

even then a reunion of the principals

not even that, it's just their first new material since 2004 but smith & orzabal have been playing together the whole time since then

comeback rather than a new reunion

this is also objectively a better album than the 2004 one

i think they're also just much cooler & more popular now than they were in 2004. synthpop & sophistipop have come back in style since then, they're regularly sampled & cited as big influences by newer acts, quite a few of their singles have now reached beloved pop classic status that idk if they quite had back then. they also recently upgraded to headlining arenas in just the last five years or so, which is pretty unusual for a legacy act who reunited over a decade ago and had mostly been playing theatres in the years since.

though i might have expected there would have been a bit more interest back then than there was, since the "mad world" cover was a huge hit not long before. but it looks like they also had some label trouble when trying to release everybody loves a happy ending and the labels it ended up on probably didn't have the resources or desire to give it much of a push at all, idk. the fact that they'd never officially broken up & orzabal had been using the name as a solo project for a while that also probably didn't help.

are those 90s orzabal-only albums any good btw, i've never checked them out

elemental is great, still have yet to listen to raoul

orzabal's solo album tomcats screaming outside is also v good

Title tracks for Elemental and Raoul are both memorable. The absence of Curt's input is noticeable, as both albums tend to drift. I'd welcome a birdistheword reconstruction of Raoul since I suspect that there's a pretty decent album buried in there (esp when considering the expanded version.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAc7sFurdUI

one of their best songs

god, and "mr pessimist" too... i don't listen to this record enough

Elemental is weird, split between like 3-4 amazing songs, 3 not very successful experiments, and a few pretty good songs in between. In addition to the big single Brad just posted, I love "Cold" and "Fish Out of Water", which is a Curt diss track lol. With Raoul, I only like the title track

"Cold" is terrific.

_Elemental_ sounded great cranked on the car stereo, back in the day. "Goodnight Song" is a top 5 TFF track for me.

The first three tracks of Elemental are especially great, lyrics about his knitwear withstanding, when he opens up and bellows out a chorus he sounds fantastic, it's kinda what I want from TFF (unfairly, I know) big open, dramatic choruses.

This month's Classic Pop mag has a fantastic long interview; they've really been through some shit, i had no idea. Cracking episode of Sodajerker here too. They seem to be in a very good mood of late; amazingly!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4aBnSKodONCeCoVGww28gi?si=2569cc0492ee48b0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLEeETqgSFA

Really liked the vocal analysis, I think I realized something unusual was there when I've tried to sing the song myself (and sound bad). Now that he points it out it's very clear to hear how Curt has to slide up to the right note many times

And back to Tipping Point, bonus track "Secret Location" is dope, reminds me of the upbeat tracks on the latest Tame Impala album

Lol I just saw Brad already made that comparison

"Break It Down Again" just came on and I am really liking it, though at the time I yawned at it for seeming out of date

Trying to remember how Chris Morris described "Sowing the Seeds of Love"??

xp I like it too, it's a really nice single. I threw that on to my copy of "Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits)" as an extra.

https://consequence.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/darker-waves-festival-lineup-2023-new-order-tears-for-fears-poster.jpg

Posting here instead of on the New Order thread, this is right in my back yard

Clan of Xymox!

It's all truly ridiculous and still somehow perfectly appropriate.

tempted by this one since I couldn't make Cruel World.

I know many people planning on going one way or another and I hope everyone has a good time and you could not *PAY* me to go to something on the beach in HB on a Saturday night.

I did a lot of beach parties in high school on the beach in Huntington Beach. Meet at the stacks. Only problem for me is I don't do festivals.

Lineup is so good it seems fake

The idea of seeing X'ian Death on a beach in the OC is making me giggle. Looks totally awesome

Thought B-52s did a farewell tour already?

KISS did one in the 90s

That many acts in a single day, how do they even do that? They must all share the same gear.

Thought B-52s did a farewell tour already?

that just wrapped up so I guess this could be considered a finale. I've actually never seen them so that's part of the reason why I'm tempted by this (along with the Cardigans, who are never going to tour the US if their FB comments are to be believed)

iirc the B-52s have stopped touring but said they’d still play the occasional festival and such

bonkers lineup but seeing as i couldn’t get it together for cruel world, which was literally seven miles from my house…

Pre-Tears For Fears Graduate appearing on Mike Reid's Runaround children's quiz show in 1980! What a strange (and not very good) band, what were they trying to be? Now a-gih a-gih a-gih gooooooooooo!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0Il4Sh9TQQ

kind of a new wave take on 60s mod pop?

really hate that madness-esque turnaround thing at the end of the verses

when i say that madness-esque turnaround thing, i might actually mean ian dury-esque, but you know what i mean

New wave take on mod with a fucking flute?

weren't there some mod/garage/freakbeat-type bands with flutes? like the troggs or someone