History Music / TearsForFears

* 1992 - ''Tears Roll Down'' [[note]]a greatest hits album, including 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[[/note]]
* 1996 - ''Saturnine Martial & Lunatic'' [[note]]a rarities collection spanning from 1983 to 1993[[/note]]
* 2017 - ''Rule the World'' [[note]]a greatest hits album, including two songs from their forthcoming album, "Stay" and "I Love You But I'm Lost"[[/note]]

* CameraAbuse: In the ''Scenes from the Big Chair'' documentary, Smith accidentally hits the camera next to him during the "Broken" reprise, so the footage is briefly shaky as a result.

** The CarefulWithThatAxe parts at the end of "Sowing the Seeds of Love" can fall into this. There's one part where Orzabal is saying, "What about the workers?", but this isn't included in the lyrics and isn't easy to make out in the studio version (it's more easily decipherable in some of the live versions).

** A strange example in "Badman's Song". After "When I hear soft whispers at the break of day", the line "I'm in trouble every step of the way" is printed in the liner notes. No known performance of the song actually contains this line; there's just a pause in the singing for a measure.

** Caroline Johnston was friends with Curt and Roland when they were young teenagers growing up in Bath, and she later became the wife of the latter. She sang the child vocal in the band's first single "Suffer the Children", she illustrated the hands on the cover art for the 1983 "Pale Shelter" single, and she's the subject of the songs "The Tipping Point" and "Please Be Happy".

[[caption-width-right:350:From the ''Songs from the Big Chair'' era. Left, Curt; Right, Roland.]]

Tears for Fears is a British duo consisting of the core members 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 in [[UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry Bath, England]], and like a lot of 1980s pop bands, they haven't had much success since the 1990s; in fact, Smith left the group in 1991, making it essentially Orzabal's solo project (although, as explained below under IAmTheBand, perhaps not as much as is popularly assumed). 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 ''Film/DonnieDarko'' was not the cause of this; they had already been in contact a year before this point and decided to be a duo again) and Tears for Fears put out a new album in 2004.

Of course, many fans over at their [[http://www.last.fm/music/Tears+for+Fears Last.FM page]] would have you believe otherwise, and, to be fair, those three are far from the band's only songs to get radio airplay; their other well-known hits include "Mad World" (which, in the past decade or so, has become probably as well known as the three tracks above), "Pale Shelter", "Change", "Sowing the Seeds of Love", "Woman in Chains", "Advice for the Young at Heart", "Break It Down Again", and "Closest Thing to Heaven".

Besides ''Songs from the Big Chair'', Orzabal and Smith did release three other albums. First there was ''The Hurting'' in 1983, which sounds more like an angst-ridden Music/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 ''Film/DonnieDarko'' soundtrack. Second was the aforementioned ''Songs from the Big Chair''. ''The Seeds of Love'' came about in 1989, and was a lot more experimental, psychedelic, and rockier than the previous albums, although 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 (with collaborators Alan Griffiths and Tim Palmer co-producing and providing additional instrumentation, alongside several other musicians on ''Raoul and the Kings of Spain''; Griffiths also co-wrote most of the songs on these albums) before Smith rejoined the band and they released the reunion album ''Everybody Loves a Happy Ending'', which picked up where ''Seeds'' left off.

They released "I Love You But I'm Lost", a non-album single, on October 12th, 2017, and also released a new best-of album on November 10th, 2017, called ''Rule the World'', which featured sixteen tracks, including two new songs, which are the aforementioned single, and "Stay". Touring in support of the album in 2017 was interrupted by the death of Roland's wife, Caroline, and he took 2018 off to recover emotionally before returning to the road in 2019.

They released "I Love You But I'm Lost", a non-album single, on October 12th, 2017, and also released a new best-of album on November 10th, 2017, called ''Rule the World'', which featured sixteen songs, including two new songs, which are the aforementioned single, and "Stay". Touring in support of the album in 2017 was interrupted by the death of Roland's wife, Caroline, and he took 2018 off to recover emotionally before returning to the road in 2019. The TitleTrack for ''The Tipping Point'' eventually saw release as a single on October 7, 2021, with the album set for release on February 25, 2022.

->''"Shout, shout, let it all out,\\

I'm talking to you, Come on."''

They released "I Love You But I'm Lost", a non-album single, on October 12th, 2017, and also released a new best-of album on November 10th, 2017, called ''Rule the World'', which featured sixteen songs, including two new songs, which are the aforementioned single, and "Stay". The TitleTrack for ''The Tipping Point'' eventually saw release as a single on October 7, 2021, with the album set for release on February 25, 2022.

* GratuitousSpanish: ''Raoul and the Kings of Spain'' features Spanish lyrics in "Los reyes católicos" and its reprise. The song title is grammatically correct Spanish for "The Catholic Kings", but is not pronounced correctly for at least most dialects of the language, although this may be to fit the rhythm of the lyrics (the stress in "católicos" should be on the "ó", which is what the acute accent indicates, and it should be a long vowel sound).

* DissonantSerenity: "Pharaohs". As Chris Hughes comments in the ''Saturnine'' liner notes, "No matter how horrifying the conditions may really be the voice reading the shipping forecast is deliberately calm and relaxed." The song itself is also calm and relaxed.

** "Mad World" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", subsequently ignored by cover artists.

** The B-side to "Everybody", "Pharaohs", also counts, containing a voice reading "horrifying" shipping forecasts in a "deliberately calm and relaxed" manner; the music is "calm and relaxed" to match.

** "Pharaohs", the B-side to "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", incorporates the main melody of the song at its end, but it is much slower and instrumental (although it features a spoken word voice reading of what appears to be weather forecasts).

* DefiniteArticleTitle:
** "The Prisoner"
** "The Conflict" [[note]]the BSide of "Change"[[/note]]
** "The Marauders" [[note]]the BSide of "The Way You Are"[[/note]]
** "The Big Chair" [[note]]the BSide of "Shout"[[/note]]
** "The Working Hour"
** "The Body Wah" [[note]]the BSide of "Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)"[[/note]]
** "The Devil"
** ''The Tipping Point'' and its TitleTrack

* ArcWords: On ''The Seeds of Love'', the verse "The sun and the moon, the wind and the rain" appears in no less than three different songs ("Woman in Chains", "The Year of the Knife", and "Famous Last Words"). These elements are also visually depicted on the cover, and the original title for the album itself was ''The Sun, the Moon, the Wind and the Rain''. It's also included in the band's live cover of "[[Music/TheBeatles All You Need Is Love]]", featured on the ''Going to California'' concert film.

--->Let me explain this. It's another example of what I was saying earlier, the thing about womb-like containment, the oceanic realm of the imagination and picking up things in a subconscious manner. There's a line that goes, "Man, I never slept so hard, I never dreamt so well/Dreaming I was safe in life/Like mussels in a shell." The vibe is one of containment and safety and peace and solitude. "Rolling and controlling all the basements and the backroads of our lives" is a reference to how you get rid of all the shit and the dirt of life -- it's swept under the carpet, or, at the very least, out of sight.\\

* SirSwearsALot: If Orzabal and Smith are interviewed together, they'll sometimes [[VitriolicBestBuds spew curse words at each other]].

** "The Year of the Knife"

* SingleStanzaSong: "Tears Roll Down" is mostly instrumental, but it does contain one stanza, and half of the verses is "Where tears roll down" repeated four times. [[note]]These lyrics would later be converted into a chorus for the single "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29IGXRtIaKg Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)]]".[[/note]]

* ArcWords: The verse "The sun and the moon, the wind and the rain" appears in no less than three different songs on ''The Seeds of Love''. It also appears in the band's live cover of "All You Need Is Love", featured on ''Going to California''.
** These things are also displayed on the cover. This was the working title for the album, but it was changed because of the popularity of the single "Sowing the Seeds of Love".

-->''When in love with a blind man\\
You watch what you say\\
And you watch yourself burn\\
With dreams of escaping\\
Make love to the man who shapes your behaviour\\
\\
When in love with a blind man\\
You love on your own\\
To an occasional smile\\
You never know why, but sometimes he smiles\\
And sometimes just lies there\\
So jealous''

* BirdsOfAFeather: The friendship between Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal was forged through their similarities: they were born less than two months apart, they both lived on a council estate, they were the [[MiddleChildSyndrome middle child]] of three sons within their families, their fathers were [[ParentalNeglect mostly absent]] from their lives, they were the same below-average height with a slender build, they shared the same sense of humour along with a passion for music and a fascination with primal therapy, and they were {{Sensitive Guy}}s who felt stifled by their StiffUpperLip environment which promoted a rigid form of manliness that was wholly incompatible with their personalities. Orzabal and Smith have been very honest about the mental health issues they developed during the turmoil of their childhoods, and they became each other's [[LivingEmotionalCrutch primary source of emotional support]].

* VocalTagTeam: Originally with ''The Hurting'', Smith and Orzabal were this, but Orzabal began taking more lead vocals afterwards, to the point where Smith only sings "Advice for the Young at Heart" on ''The Seeds of Love''. On ''Everybody Loves a Happy Ending'', Smith has lead vocals on "Size of Sorrow" and "Who You Are", although he has co-writing credits on about half the album.

* DeathSong: "The Tipping Point" is about the tipping point between life and death, and it was based on Roland Orzabal's harrowing experience watching his wife Caroline die slowly of [[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/oct/08/tears-for-fears-reunion-interview liver cirrhosis.]] Curt Smith does share some of the anguish because Caroline was his ChildhoodFriend, hence the reason why the song is a duet. At the time of this single's release in 2021, it marked only the second time that both men's vocals carried equal weight in the band's 40-year-long history, so it's a testament to how deeply personal Caroline's illness and eventual death was for the duo.

* ChildhoodFriends: Orzabal and Smith were introduced to each other as 13-year-olds through a mutual friend named Paul. Music has been an integral part of their friendship since Day 1 because during their first meeting, Roland heard Curt singing to Music/BlueOysterCult's "Then Came the Last Days of May", and the former was impressed enough that he immediately asked the latter if he wanted to be the lead singer of his band. Curt replied yes, and the duo became best friends and musical partners from that point forward.

-->''Silver tongue, they'll soon be gone\\

Lay down with them if you want\\

* DefiniteArticleTitle:
** "The Prisoner"
** "The Conflict" [[note]]the BSide of "Change"[[/note]]
** "The Marauders" [[note]]the BSide of "The Way You Are"[[/note]]
** "The Big Chair" [[note]]the BSide of "Shout"[[/note]]
** "The Working Hour"
** "The Body Wah" [[note]]the BSide of "Laid So Low (Tears Roll Down)"[[/note]]
** "The Devil"
** ''The Tipping Point'' and its TitleTrack
* DemotedToExtra: In the "I Believe (A Soulful Re-Recording)" music video, Curt Smith only appears thrice for a few seconds; he hits a triangle the first two times, and in the third, he's dressed to the nines in a tuxedo while he taps his champagne glass with a knife. It's an early sign that he's gradually being pushed aside by Roland Orzabal from the band's creative process.
* DissonantSerenity: "Pharaohs". As Chris Hughes comments in the ''Saturnine'' liner notes, "No matter how horrifying the conditions may really be the voice reading the shipping forecast is deliberately calm and relaxed." The song itself is also calm and relaxed.
* TheDissTrack:
** In "Wino", Roland Orzabal (who has told the media that he hates his dad) depicts his father as a pathetic loser who doesn't want to do anything but drink and smoke all day, seemingly content to die slowly from his addictions.
--->''You're happy dying, you don't wanna change\\
Remove your fix and you feel your pain\\

You're a wino\\
A cigarette smoker\\
You have a good time\\
They call you a joker, don't they?''
** In "Fish Out of Water", Roland Orzabal deplores how frivolous Curt Smith had become after they achieved global stardom, the latter being constantly distracted by the glamorous lifestyle that his newfound wealth and fame afforded him. Orzabal feels that Smith was lazily coasting on the band's success with his [[PrettyBoy good looks]] and [[TheCharmer charm]] while contributing little to the music in comparison to Orzabal, who's the main songwriter. From Orzabal's perspective, Smith would be nothing without him, so now that Smith has severed all ties to Tears for Fears, Orzabal likens his ex-best friend to a fish that's wholly out of its element, an aimless dreamer who will either (figuratively) suffocate on land or get lost at sea without Orzabal's talent.
--->''With all your high class friends you think you've got it made\\
The only thing you made was that tanned look on your face\\
With all your cigarettes and fancy cars\\
You ain't a clue who or what you are\\

You're dreaming your life away\\
Fish out of water\\
Go swim in the tide today\\
Fish out of water''
** Smith's AnswerSong "Sun King" paints Orzabal as a spiteful, narcissistic, reclusive despot who's exhibiting signs of mental instability. The former believes that the latter is out of touch with reality because a lot of Orzabal's decisions are based on the WesternZodiac, which includes rationalizing his psychological abuse of Smith. [[note]]Smith did complain about Orzabal being overly obsessed with astrology; the latter brought astrology books to the recording studio, and he refused to work on certain days because his horoscope said it would turn out badly if he did so.[[/note]] Just to add extra salt on the wound, Smith also taunts his ex-partner by telling him that he looks ugly now that he's ageing, probably as payback to Orzabal for badmouthing Smith to the press by claiming that the latter was a talentless PrettyBoy. Despite Orzabal's inflated ego, Smith views his former friend as a miserable, pitiful wreck.
--->''The evidence is on the page\\
Not much to show for so much rage\\
It makes me smile\\
You lost it somehow\\

Solitude was your only choice\\
Bitterness your only voice\\
I saw your face\\
The time is talking now\\

Boy you looked so bad\\

A small, imbalanced, vain recluse\\
You use the planets to excuse\\
Your costumed smile\\
Your childish abuse\\

* GratuitousForeignLanguage: ''Salam'', the Arabic salutation meaning "peace", appears in "Floating Down the River".

* FamilyOfChoice: As stated in [[https://live.staticflickr.com/1822/28604287527_3794439f62_o.jpg this interview,]] Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal view themselves more "like brothers than best friends" and they can "read each other like books."

* FlowersOfFemininity: The covers of the "[[https://i.imgur.com/SrlnKBN.jpg Sowing the Seeds of Love]]" and "[[https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmE2ZTEzM2MtYjQ2NC00NTk2LWJkOGUtOWExYjcyMjdiNWVhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg Advice for the Young at Heart]]" singles feature women surrounded by flowers. The 1991 reissue of "[[https://img.discogs.com/SU48Z3UKbkBzU-_zR9pqh4tU1qs=/fit-in/600x607/filters:strip_icc():format(webp):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-3675905-1358194420-8266.jpeg.jpg Woman in Chains]]" adds a floral design that was lacking on the original artwork.

** In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUp-ujO979U The Tipping Point]]" music video, a vase with red roses represent Orzabal's wife Caroline (who was also Smith's ChildhoodFriend), while the table sliding beneath it symbolize that she's approaching the end of her life. When the vase falls off the table's edge, it means that she has reached the tipping point between life and death. The vase and the roses are later seen scattered on the floor, which conveys that she has died.

** "The Conflict"
** "The Marauders"

** "The Big Chair"
** "The Body Wah"