Capturing some of their chart-topping smashes and other key tracks, Tears for Fears marks a monumental career with their collection Tears Roll Down: Greatest Hits 82-92. Toward the end of the praise surrounding their third album, 1991's Seeds of Love, Curt Smith left the band. Roland Orzabal was left to sail the ship alone, and the strong success dwindled years later. However, this dozen-track compilation showcases some of the band's early tracks heavily dominated by pulsating bass drops and heavy synth beats.
"Pale Shelter" and "Mad World" from their 1982 debut The Hurting moved toward the soul-defining musical maturation found on 1985's groundbreaking staple Songs From the Big Chair. The Top Ten hits are undoubtedly featured: "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," "Shout," and the more obscure "Mothers Talk." The luscious "Head Over Heels" cuts short of it's closing guitar work, a disappointment in the grand scheme of Tears for Fears' synth-dominated sound. Such layered riffs separated the rawness from the fluffy new wave aspect. "Sowing the Seeds of Love" marked the band's own branded progressive rock & roll, but "Woman in Chains," the gospel-tinged cut featuring guest vocals from Oleta Adams, was their most spiritual effort. Essentially, the dozen-track collection is a perfect look at what Tears for Fears did for music during the '80s until the mid-'90s. They made new wave sound cool and melodically beautiful.
If The Hurting was mental anguish, Songs from the Big Chair marks the progression towards emotional healing, a particularly bold sort of catharsis culled from Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith's shared attraction to primal scream therapy. The album also heralded a dramatic maturation in the band's music, away from the synth-pop brand with which it was (unjustly) seared following the debut, and towards a complex, enveloping pop sophistication. The songwriting of Orzabal, Smith, and keyboardist Ian Stanley took a huge leap forward, drawing on reserves of palpable emotion and lovely, protracted melodies that draw just as much on soul and R&B music as they do on immediate pop hooks. The album could almost be called pseudo-conceptual, as each song holds its place and each is integral to the overall tapestry, a single-minded resolve that is easy to overlook when an album is as commercially successful as Songs from the Big Chair. And commercially successful it was, containing no less than three huge commercial radio hits, including the dramatic and insistent march, "Shout" and the shimmering, cascading "Head Over Heels," which, tellingly, is actually part of a song suite on the album. Orzabal and Smith's penchant for theorizing with steely-eyed austerity was mistaken for harsh bombasticism in some quarters, but separated from its era, the album only seems earnestly passionate and immediate, and each song has the same driven intent and the same glistening remoteness. It is not only a commercial triumph, it is an artistic tour de force. And in the loping, percolating "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," Tears for Fears perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the mid-'80s while impossibly managing to also create a dreamy, timeless pop classic. Songs from the Big Chair is one of the finest statements of the decade.
After 5 years of their ever-popular 'Songs from The Big Chair' where it spawned singles like 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World', 'Shout' and 'Head Over Heels', this album was made as a comeback album from the band after a long absence. They were still popular around the world and fans were eagerly awaiting what 'The Seeds of Love' was going to bring. It brought a more mature sound with less demand of synth-sounds and more of vocals and guitar, also it brought so much more emotion and dark, daring songs like 'Swords And Knives'. This album is very different to 'Songs from the Big Chair', its more of an ambitious swansong. The band on this album still keep the concept of moving from hurting to healing to beginning anew to growing apart. Instead of producing bass-powered hooks, they now rely on piano-guitar based sounds to put this concept across and add so much more emotion to the songs. There was a controvisal outbreak during the making of the album, where it affects the rest of the band's journey to the 90's, where Orzabal and Smith had bad terms together and after the album, the two-split and signaled a change in the band's direction. The first song of the album, 'Woman In Chains', signals a very diffferent mood from 'Songs from the Big Chair'. There is a sense of change in the sound straight away when you hear it, more powerful drums and a more swaying sound of beautiful instrumentation. Orzabal's vocals on the song (and album) are so strong throughout and it really puts the emotion across and this is one of the highlights of the album. With Phil Collins on the drums and Oleta Adams sharing vocals with Orzabal, this song is one of the highlights of the album and it really shows the direction that band had taken in the album. 'Badman Song' brings us to more jazzy and more playful, creative side of the album where it shows Orzabal's skill of songwriting. The song itself is very diverse having really slick riffs and also building in a gospel influence at places. The vocals here are just divine and again just shows how talented Orzabal is, I'm beginning to think he is one of the most underrated musicians in modern music. The song is probably too long for it's kind, exceeding over 8 minutes, but still there is a glimpse of greatness and diversity to listen to. We are now brought to the hit of the album 'Sowing The Seeds Of Love'. Again, the songwriting on the song is amazing with having such a hook on it and there is such an atmospheric soul evolcing around the song that really keeps your attention. There is again a diverse sound and this is the only song on the album suprisingly where there is a Orzabal/Smith collaboration in the songwriting, this is probably why the two split up after the album. The song is insanely intricate and also very, very catchy. 'Advice For the Young At Heart' is a more cultural sound from a mediteranean style. There are many different kinds of instruments here with some very soulful vocals to soothe the song to make it sound very gentle. The chorus here is the main highlight due to it being very appealing and beautiful at the same time. 'Standing On the Corner of the Third World' is another song that has a cultural sound, this time coming from the arabic side, due to it relating the 'third world' to the music. Again, the song sounds soothing and very gentle but also this time, very dramatic. It brings a very powerful mood to the album and really grips you with its climax it has to where it reaches to the chrous, where the guitars become more intense and the backing vocals add more emphasis. It is such a moody song that is the anti-climax to 'Advice...'. 'Swords and Knives' is very dramatic again and it has such beautiful instrumentation. The brooding piano really intensify the song showing the dark side of the album. The cultural sound plays a part again in the song but is then overshadowed by the power of the vocals by Orzabal and Adams and the very mesmirising sounds of the guitars and drums. Again, the song maybe a bit too long for it's kind, but again the emotion showed in the song really brings out it's message. 'Year of the Knife' is rather different to the rest of the songs, this is more of a rock song like what other bands at the time would write in the 90's. Orzabal's guitaring in this song is the main highlight, putting so much effort in the techniques and he uses intense soloing and riffs, his vocals that goes with is probably the best performance in the album, with his impressive falsetto's and dramatic voice in the verses and chorus. The song itself is so catchy and proves a massive climax against the recent 2 songs. It is a very lively, catchy and a shout-out song that is one of the highlights. The last song 'Famous Last Words' is very quietly mostly that consists of a very gentle piano but is so powerful, Orzabal's vocals really power the song's slow-burn. Surpisingly, this is my personal favorite off the album as it just is beautiful on its own with its string arrangements building up the song to a more dramatic sound and reaching higher levels when it comes to near the end of the song where the song bursts an outbreak of distortion and some very emotional vocals and great instrumentation. This song is very well-written and it's time is just perfect. This song ends the album just at the right places. Even though the album ends the collaboration between Orzabal and Smith, it sounds like the band's legacy will never end. The album is just beauty all around and with just 8 songs that are lengthy, there is a guarentee that there is no fillers and people will enjoy and treasure the album if they are interested in this kind of music, which is power-pop/rock music.
