The core membership of TearsForFears is a British duo consisting of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, although plenty of other musicians have been involved in the project throughout the years, many as named members of the band. The band, which was named for a primal therapy technique, formed in 1981, and like a lot of 1980's pop bands, they haven't had much success since the 1990's; in fact, Smith left the band in 1992, making the band essentially [[IAmTheBand Orzabal's solo project]]. Smith rejoined in 2001 (contrary to certain reports in the media, the renewed attention to their music due to "Head Over Heels" and a cover of "Mad World" being used in ''{{Donnie Darko}}'' was not the cause of this) and TearsForFears put out a new album in 2004.

This band's three most famous songs come from their 1985 album ''Songs from the Big Chair''. At least, these are the three songs that you hear on the radio all the time and in "best of the 80's" compilation albums as of February 19, 2010:
* "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"
* "Shout"
* "Head over Heels"
Of course, many fans over at their [[http://www.last.fm/music/Tears+for+Fears Last.FM page]] would have you believe otherwise. That said, these are far from the band's only songs to get radio airplay.

To be fair, Orzabal and Smith did release three other albums. First there was ''The Hurting'' in 1983, which sounds more like an angst-ridden DepecheMode album; this is where the single "Mad World" came from, which later got a [[CoveredUp more popular cover version]] by Gary Jules that was used on the ''DonnieDarko'' soundtrack. Second was ''The Seeds of Love'' in 1989, which was a lot more experimental and rockier than the previous albums, though it did spawn a couple of hits ("Sowing the Seeds of Love" and "Woman in Chains"). After their breakup, Roland Orzabal would release [[IAmTheBand two essentially solo albums]] under the band's name, before Smith rejoined the band and they released the reunion album ''Everybody Loves a Happy Ending''.

[[IThoughtItMeant Do not confuse with]] the trope TearsOfFear.

Core discography:
* 1983 - ''The Hurting''
* 1985 - ''Songs from the Big Chair''
* 1989 - ''The Seeds of Love''
* 1992 - ''Tears Roll Down''*
* 1993 - ''Elemental''**
* 1995 - ''Raoul and the Kings of Spain''**
* 1996 - ''Saturnine Martial & Lunatic''***
* 2004 - ''Everybody Loves a Happy Ending''

[=*=] is a greatest hits album, which includes the single "Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)", which only appears on compilations and which is the first song Orzabal recorded as Tears for Fears without Smith.

[=**=] denotes album recorded without Smith.

[=***=] is a rarities collection spanning from 1983 to 1993.

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!!Shout...shout...let it all out. These are the tropes I could do without:
* ApocalypseHow[=/=]WorldWarIII: "Famous Last Words" describes a planetary class 3. WordOfGod says it's a nuclear holocaust.
* ArcWords: The phrase "The sun and the moon, the wind and the rain" appears in no less than three different songs on ''The Seeds of Love''.
* {{Bishonen}}, AmbiguouslyGay: What these two guys also looked like.
* CoverVersion: The band has covered Music/DavidBowie's "Ashes to Ashes" and Robert Wyatt's "Sea Song". The band's own "Mad World" was later CoveredUp by Gary Jules.
* CreatorBacklash: The band really hated "The Way You Are". They only recorded it because the record company demanded a new song for a single, and they had performed it live. Orzabal wrote in the liner notes to ''Saturnine Martial & Lunatic'' that it was "the point at which we realised we had to change direction", leading to the band's first NewSoundAlbum on ''Songs from the Big Chair''.
* DownerEnding: ''The Seeds of Love'' ends with "Famous Last Words", which is pure TearJerker. (Considering that it's about a couple perishing in each other's arms during a nuclear holocaust, it'd pretty much have to be).
* EightiesHair: And again...!
* IAmTheBand: Orzabal is the only well-known band member on ''Elemental'' and ''Raoul and the Kings of Spain''. "Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)", which was a minor (at least compared to the three songs listed in the band bio) hit, also falls under this trope.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: The band's early singles and their b sides were rerecorded for The Hurting, and most of the originals have not appeared on CD due to the album versions being used on compilations. The B Side Wino has also never appeared on CD, probably due to being written about Roland Orzabal's father.
* LastOfHisKind: Roland Orzabal, for whatever reason, wanted to keep the band alive so much that, during the 1990's, almost all of his solo work [[IAmTheBand would be released under the band's name]]. ''Tomcats Screaming Outside'', which he made in 2001, was his only album that he released under his name.
* NewSoundAlbum: Basically all of them.
** ''Songs from the Big Chair'' expanded the original album's synth-pop template with influence from jazz and electronica (as well as a Robert Wyatt-style ballad in "I Believe").
** ''The Seeds of Love'' took influence from [[TheSeventies '70s]] ProgressiveRock and [[TheSixties '60s]] [[PsychedelicRock psychedelia]], particularly Music/TheBeatles. It also upped the jazz influence and threw in some world, new age, and gospel music influence for good measure.
** ''Elemental'' had a more slick modern sound with a more cinematic scope.
** ''Raoul and the Kings of Spain'' was a ConceptAlbum about Orzabal's Spanish heritage and incorporated a lot of influence from flamenco and other styles (although this was not present on every track).
** ''Everybody Loves a Happy Ending'' went back to the psychedelia-influenced sound of ''The Seeds of Love'', but was in general substantially brighter and more modern.
* ProtestSong:
** "Shout" is a bit of a meta example; the lyrics themselves don't actually protest anything in particular, but they encourage protest.
** Played more straight on some other songs, such as "Sowing the Seeds of Love", which is an attack on the [[MargaretThatcher Thatcher]] government.
* PuttingTheBandBackTogether: They got back together in 2001 apparently on a whim and made an album in 2004. They're currently on tour.
* {{Sampling}}:
** "The Body Wah" is constructed around a sample of a woman describing "a well-known female politician" with the words, "Because she has power, she has personality".
** "Elemental" is constructed around a sample of a guitar using the wah-wah pedal from the band's own "Lord of Karma".
** "Empire Building" is constructed around a two-second sample of an early Music/SimpleMinds track.
** The dialogue in "The Big Chair" is sampled from the film ''Film/{{Sybil}}'', which inspired it.
* ScienceIsBad: "Schrödinger's Cat" and "Deja Vu & the Sins of Science".
* ShoutOut:
** The band name is a reference to primal therapy. Also, in ''Shout'', they take this trope [[LiteralMinded literally]].
** "The Big Chair" (which also inspired the title ''Songs from the Big Chair'', although it does not appear on the original album) is inspired by the film ''{{Film/Sybil}}'' and [[{{Sampling}} samples]] it.
** "Empire Building" is inspired by ''Film/BreakerMorant'', a film about the SecondBoerWar.
** "Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams", a trip-hop [[MusicalPastiche remake]] of "Sowing the Seeds of Love" and "Shout" (with what Orzabal describes as "a Music/TalkingHeads-style chorus"), derives its title from a book by Creator/SylviaPlath.
** "Dog's a Best Friend's Dog" contains a reference to ''Theatre/WaitingForGodot''.
** "Don't Drink the Water" drops in a reference to Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
* SpecialGuest:
** Music/PhilCollins plays the drums on "Woman in Chains".
** Legendary trumpeter and world musician Jon Hassell plays on "Standing on the Corner of the Third World".
** Oleta Adams sings guest vocals on "Woman in Chains", "Badman's Song", and "Me and My Big Ideas". She also plays piano on "Badman's Song" and "Standing on the Corner of the Third World". Orzabal and Smith are basically responsible for discovering her.
** Information on most of the band members apart from Orzabal and Smith can be found [[http://www.memoriesfade.com/band/4related.html here]], although it looks like it hasn't been updated since shortly after the release of ''Everybody Loves a Happy Ending''.
* SuspiciouslySimilarSong[=/=]{{Homage}}:
** WordOfGod admits that "Sowing the Seeds of Love" and "Schrödinger's Cat" are both pastiches of "[[TheBeatles I Am the Walrus]]" (Orzabal also notes that the piano break on "Schrödinger" is "reminiscent of [Thunderclap Newman's] 'Something in the Air'"). These were far from the only [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] pastiches the group recorded; large parts of ''The Seeds of Love'' and ''Everybody Loves a Happy Ending'' bear clear Beatles influence (although maybe not quite this clear).
** "Brian Wilson Said", as might be expected from the title, is a BeachBoys pastiche (it also alludes to Van Morrison's track "Jackie Wilson Said", which appears on ''Saint Dominic's Preview'', though that's probably the only Morrison influence on the track).
** With "Lord of Karma", Orzabal [[WordOfGod says]] the group were "trying to get somewhere between the HappyMondays and JimiHendrix's 'Crosstown Traffic'".
** "I Believe" is such a clear Robert Wyatt homage that the band covered his track "Sea Song" for the B-side.
* TakeOverTheWorld: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Everybody Wants to Rule the World]].
* TheManIsStickingItToTheMan: "Shout" is apparently all about this, given the times in which the song was released.
* UncommonTime: "Tears Roll Down" is mostly in 7/8. One of the riffs from this song reappears in "Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)" for brief periods, but it's used as a polyrhythm and the song is in 4/4.
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