A favourite thing: album (and sad hairstyle) (The Hurting - Tears For Fears)

Member Name: offy

Product:	The Hurting - Tears For Fears
Date:	15/07/02 (495 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Moody music, haunting

Disadvantages: Can be depressing, it's 20 years old!

I had one of those drinking and reminiscing evenings yesterday. I rifled through my old vinyls and lost myself to a world where I was young and the most important thing in my life was music. This opinion is dedicated to Jill Murphy (details at the end) as Tears for Fears are still my favourite band, despite the passing of time, and the memories some of these songs evoke are simply the best. It may just be an album review to those reading, but it is a celebration of life to me.

When I was about 8, I decided I was in love with Donny Osmond, then I moved on to John Travolta. When I was 17, I first saw Curt Smith from Tears for Fears and my whole life changed! He had these weird plaits at the back of his head and from then on, I would only go out with boys with the same haircut (everyone is allowed to be shallow when they are a teenager, after all).

The Tears for Fears name was derived from the book ‘Primal Scream’ by Arthur Janov. Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith were previously in a band called Neon. Curt Smith became disillusioned with the band and left in 1990 leaving Roland Orzabal to continue with more minor hits. TFF have sold over 17 million albums worldwide.

I did see them in concert a few times in the 80’s. Roland has a great voice, but Curt’s let me down live. They were also very ignorant towards their fans, refusing to return for even one encore.

Tears for Fears’ early music is extremely moody. I remember Steve Wright saying in the 80’s that the music was getting depressing, but I didn’t notice then. I was in my element – clubbing and drinking, and loving every minute of the electronic era. It is only truly listening to the music and lyrics now (which I frequently do) that I realise he was right. Most of the lyrics centre around unhappy childhoods, so Roland was obviously scarred! Never the less, I adore this album, which I don’t believe has the typic
al electronic sound that he early 80’s is remembered for. This music can stand the test of time better than some other 80’s stuff due to the heavy influence of the guitar and saxophone in their songs rather than keyboards. Not quite rock, I’m not sure what genre this music would be classified as.

Here are a few of my favourites:

MAD WORLD
“And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad, the dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had”. One of my favourite tracks of all time. I love the beat of this record, you just have to move to it. Depressing, cynical lyrics as usual, but it is a haunting record. It is also the first record I ever played on my brand new stereo, which I was very proud of as I had bought it with my own earnings. It charted in October 1982 and got to number 3.

PALE SHELTER
“And I can’t operate on this failure, when all I want to be is, completely in command”. This was actually released as their first single, but it flopped. After the success of Mad World they re-released it in April 1983 and it peaked at number 5 in the charts. Lots of bass guitar in this one. Slightly more upbeat than the others, but I can see why Mad World did better.

MEMORIES FADE
“Memories fade but the scars still linger, goodbye my friend, will I ever love again?” This record MUST be chilled to. Whether it is a glass of wine, beer or some other substance, to appreciate it you must relax into it. It is a slow, haunting song, but cannot be considered a ballad.

CHANGE
“Change, (doo doo doo doo doo doo) you can change” – the rousing chorus always gets me going. The ‘doos’ sound like a wooden glockenspiel to me, but I can’t be sure. I feel the urge to do some head banging to this one too sometimes. This single charted in February 1983 and peaked at number 4. It reminds me of a good frie
nd moving away at the time, and the changes it meant for me.

Track listing:
1. The Hurting
2. Mad World
3. Pale Shelter
4. Ideas as Opiates
5. Memories Fade
6. Suffer the Children
7. Watch me Bleed
8. Change
9.The Prisoner
10. Start of the breakdown
Extra tracks now available:
11. Pale Shelter (Long Version)
12. The Way You Are (extended)
13. Mad World (world remix)
14. Change (extended version)

The album was released in 1983 on the Phonogram Label. It is still available at Amazon for £7.99 and you now get an additional 4 tracks (detailed above) than on my original CD (and LP). The only duff track in my opinion is Ideas as Opiates.

To hear these tracks visit:
http://album.yahoo.com/shop?d=ha&id=1801608770 &clink=dmmu-ks/tears_for_fears&c f=10&intl=us

For more information on Tears for Fears visit:
www.tearsforfears.net

Highly recommend moody music – enjoy!

"Jill Murphy asked me to write about one of my favourite things to help her celebrate her fourth anniversary of cancer-free living and to remind ourselves of all the nice things in the world. It takes more muscles to make a frown than a smile you know. If you'd like to join in, whether you've only just joined dooyoo, or you've been here ages, you're more than welcome. Just write about one of YOUR favourite things, make your title "A Favourite Thing: [your choice]" and include this paragraph at the foot of your opinion. And post before Friday, 9th August."

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