Tears For Fears’ Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith document all the “tipping points” they’ve survived throughout the past 17 years since their last release Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, on their upcoming album The Tipping Point (Concord Records), out Feb. 25, 2022.
Videos by American Songwriter
“Before everything went so right with this album, everything first had to go wrong, it took years, but something happens when we put our heads together,” says Orzabal. “We’ve got this balance, this push-me-pull-you thing—and it works really well.”
Smith adds, “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.”
Written by Orzabal and guitarist, writer, and producer Charlton Pettus, the first single and title track is a pulsing capture of grief, reflecting Orzabal’s own loss when his wife Caroline died after a long battle with cancer in 2017. The video, directed by the famed Matt Mahurin (Joni Mitchell, U2, Metallica), captures a “poetic portrait of imbalance.”
Formed in Bath, England in 1981, Tears For Fears have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, seeing their apex in the 1980s with hits “Shout,” “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” “Mad World,” “Sowing The Seeds Of Love,” and “Woman In Chains.” For The Tipping Point, Orzabal and Smith switched to new management after their old regime began dictating the direction of the new album and causing a rift between the duo.
“Suddenly, for the first time in a long time, we felt like we had someone in our corner who understood what we were trying to do,” shares Orzabal. “We felt like we had somebody on our side. It was the first time in a long time that we decided we have to do this.”
For The Tipping Point, the pair also enlisted longtime collaborator Pettus, along with producers and songwriters Sacha Skarbek and Florian Reutter, who also co-produced the album.
“When you’ve known each other as long as we have, and have worked together as long as we have, there’s a bond there that becomes familial, so, it’s different from a friendship,” says Smith. “And it’s different from a marriage. It’s literally like that’s your brother. It’s the kind of bond that you can’t really break. It can fall apart at times. You separate for periods, which I also think is healthy, really. But in the end, we always seem to find each other again.”
The Tipping Point Track list
1. No Small Thing
2. The Tipping Point
3. Long, Long, Long Time
4. Break The Man
5. My Demons
6. Rivers Of Mercy
7. Please Be Happy
8. Master Plan
9. End Of Night
10. Stay
Additional Tracks On The Deluxe CD Edition
11. Let It All Evolve
12. Secret Location
13. Shame (Cry Heaven)
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