Tears for Fears / YMMV

Awesome Music: Most of their discography, but especially their first three albums (The Hurting, Songs from the Big Chair, and The Seeds of Love). All their albums have their share of great tunes, though.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: "Wino" from their debut single is a simple acoustic piece about Roland's father, and it was never released on CD until 2013's The Hurting super deluxe box set.
Covered Up:
- "Mad World" was originally performed by them, but many younger people only know Gary Jules' version from Donnie Darko. However, both band members have said that they love this version of "Mad World". They originally tried to write the song as a ballad on acoustic guitar, but it didn't work, so they changed it to a drum beat and did a Synth-Pop version instead. They have even covered Gary Jules' version live.
- Younger people are also more likely to recognize Lorde's cover of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (recorded for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire) than the original.
Critical Dissonance: Both of Tears for Fears' '90s albums were generally dismissed by critics, who regarded Elemental as middle-of-the-road at best and Raoul and the Kings of Spain as way out of Roland Orzabal's range as an artist. Among fans meanwhile, they're much better-regarded, albeit not at the level of the band's '80s albums.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Despite not being released as a single, "The Working Hour" has remained steadily popular with fans over the years, with the band themselves even taking note of this.
Epic Riff: The drum intro to "Shout", the main synthesizer riff of "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", and the main piano riff of "Head over Heels" all count.
Friendly Fandoms: With Depeche Mode, thanks to both of them being New Wave Music bands who rose to prominence around the same time in the mid-80s - not to mention that both Songs from the Big Chair and Music for the Masses share a producer in Dave Bascombe.
Funny Moments:
- Roland is hit in the face by a paper airplane in the "Pale Shelter" music video.
- A literal version parody of the "Head over Heels" music video.
- Roland and Curt's appearance on Comedy Bang! Bang!: "This is the Bomb Song."
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In a specific song example, the original single "Pale Shelter (You Don't Give Me Love)" was a commercial failure everywhere (including the band's native UK) except in Canada, where it peaked at #12 on the Canadian music chart, which makes it a Top 20 hit (and invokedBreakthrough Hit) in that country. ^note
Harsher in Hindsight: In "Last Days on Earth", the narrator reassures an ailing loved one that he'll be by their side until they pass away, which was a Heartwarming Moment... and then Roland later did exactly that after his wife Caroline got sick and ultimately passed away.
Heartwarming Moments:
- Orzabal and Smith parted ways at the beginning of The '90s. In 2000, they met to sort out legal paperwork related to the band, and they decided to have dinner together afterwards. One thing led to another, they reunited, released a new album, and have been touring ever since. It really is true that everybody loves a happy ending, which is something that can't really be said for most bands that have split up.
- Curt and his daughter Diva perform an acoustic duet of "Mad World" during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
Ho Yay: Has its own page.
Memetic Mutation:
- Shout! Shout! Let it all out! These are the things I can do without, come on! It's also not uncommon for other people to insert a different word where "things" is.
- "Every photo of Tears for Fears looks like a couple who just had a fight and aren't talking to each other."◊
- This meme◊ pokes fun at the duo's '80s Hair, comparing their hairstyles to a llama and a squirrel (Smith himself has joked that his old mullet looked like "I have a squirrel on my head").
Most Wonderful Sound:
- Orzabal's powerful vocals.
- Smith's ethereal vocals — in fact, his friendship with Orzabal began after the latter was captivated by Smith's singing voice.
- Oleta Adams' beautiful voice.
Narm Charm:
- Roland's dancing in the "Mad World" video, especially during the instrumental break.
- The light-hearted, comedic and surreal "Head over Heels" music video.
Nightmare Fuel:
- "The Prisoner" is an oddly eerie and unsettling song, at least by Tears for Fears' standards.
- On a similar note for B-sides, many of them range from very interesting instrumentals to disturbing experimental pieces:
  - "We are Broken", which originated as a B-side for one of their earlier singles, has a strange "reverse" intro which sounds relatively unnerving.
  - "The Big Chair", which is a rather unnerving piece which takes samples from the movie which the album was based off of, Sybil.
- "Mad World" is a combination of this and Tear Jerker, as it's all about how fucked up the world/people are in general. There's also an odd sound effect that plays a few times (first playing when he says "Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday") which almost serves as a Jump Scare the first time you hear the song.
Older Than They Think: "Size of Sorrow" appears on 2004's Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, but it actually was written in 1993 and performed on the Elemental tour. For whatever reason, it did not appear on the following album, Raoul and the Kings of Spain.
Portmanteau Couple Name: Fans who ship Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith together have dubbed their pairing as "Rolcurt."
Signature Song: "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". "Shout" isn't too far behind. Both were ranked among the top 100 singles of the 80s by Billboard in 2019, and also among the top 600 of all time. ("Everybody..." was #345, "Shout" was #391.) Not bad for an act with just two chart toppers.
Suspiciously Similar Song:
- "Sowing the Seeds of Love" was a very obvious musical homage to "I Am the Walrus", and it also had various other Beatle-esque touches. "Schrödinger's Cat" is, by Orzabal's own admission, another example of this for the same song.
- On a similar note, "The Prisoner" is an admitted copy of Peter Gabriel's "Intruder", both bearing similarities in sound and structure.
- "Swords and Knives" could be this to their own "I Believe", especially obvious in the demo version, which was recorded only a few months after the single remake of that track.
Tear Jerker: See here.

YMMV / Tears for Fears

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