Expectations were high when Tears For Fears co-founders Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal got together in 2015 to record what would have been the once-chart-topping English music duo's first new album since 2004's "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending."
A year and 12 completed songs later, the two were so unhappy with what resulted that they took drastic measures to ensure the public would never hear it.
In short order, they jettisoned their manager and negotiated their way out of their record contract. But that wasn't the most drastic step by the two frustrated musicians, who first teamed up in their teens in 1978.
"We bought the album from Warner Bros. so it couldn't be released," said Smith, whose 2022 Tears For Fears tour is now underway. "It wasn't an album we were proud of, but they would have released it."
"I think the management just didn't trust us," Orzabal said. "Fundamentally, they didn't trust us — and I think they are regretting it now."
Either way, Smith and Orzabal leave no doubt about how happy they are to have followed their instincts. They let their quest for creativity take precedence over commercial concerns by rejecting the notion they had to devise flavor-of-the-month hits.
"The Tipping Point" was released Feb. 25 by Concord/Craft Records. It is the first album of new songs by Tears For Fears in 18 years — and only the second since Smith reteamed with Orzabal in 2000, after devoting 19 years to his solo career. It is also the most assured, engaging and musically uncharacteristic work of the now-41-year-old duo's career.
'Slightly insulting'
The story of how this elegant, carefully crafted album came to be — and how it almost didn't happen at all — serves as a fascinating cautionary tale for fans and for young and seasoned musicians alike.
It's a tale that spotlights a music industry eager to embrace formulas and loath to take any chances that might endanger potential profits. And it's a tale of what happens when veteran artists are forced to team up with "hot" young pop hit-makers, after the veterans are pigeonholed by their record company and manager as a "heritage" act.
That stifling designation is often used to describe bands and solo performers whose commercial heyday occurred decades ago. Their paydays come from playing their old hits in concert, over and over, night after night, not from new albums. That is why Tears For Fears' now former record company and ex-manager tried to discourage Smith and Orzabal from even making a new album.
Then again, why even bother coming up with new songs — let alone entire albums — if you are regarded solely as a nostalgia-fueled money machine by the powers that be?
"We had been told that we were very much like a 'heritage' act, which we find slightly insulting," Smith, 60, said, speaking from his longtime Los Angeles home.
"Because using that phrase, 'heritage,' is saying: 'You have nothing valid to say now. But you used to, so we respect you for that.' So, it's a backhanded insult."
Orzabal, 60, agreed.
"It's quite simple: If you're an artist, you need to make music, because you're living your life," he said, speaking in a separate interview from Los Angeles.
"And the desire, the deep desire to express yourself, doesn't go away. I mean, it can go away. Life can become stagnant. You can end up in a bad place and not feel the need or ability to express things on the deep, deep level that we have in the past."
A quietly defiant middle finger
The depth of expression Tears For Fears is still capable of achieving is underscored by "The Tipping Point's" sublime opening number, "No Small Thing."
Defiantly going against expectations, the song starts off so softly and understated that some longtime fans might think they are listening to another group altogether. "No Small Thing" then gradually unfolds, before building to a psychedelic orchestral climax that evokes the end of The Beatles' epic "A Day in the Life."
What results is a wonderfully surprising song that shifts shapes and evolves at an unhurried pace. It sounds like both a mission statement and a middle finger to the music industry at large — and Tears For Fears' former manager and former record company specifically.
"Yes, I think that's what it is," Orzabal said.
"That is completely accurate." Smith agreed. "It is, as you say, a statement of intent. This song and album are a journey we're asking you to go on. We intentionally put 'No Small Thing' on as the first song because people's initial reaction is going to be: 'Oh, this is not the Tears For Fears I know.' We wrote the song on acoustic guitars, so that's why it starts off that way."
Then there's "Master Plan." A plaintive, mid-tempo song, its lyrics take direct aim at the forces who tried to make Tears For Fears conform to expectations on the group's new album.
Witness "Master Plan's" concluding verse: It's not who I am/ It's just part of the master plan/ I feel rage/ I need faith/ If my soul be damned/ It's all part of the master plan.
Hmmm.
Did Tears For Fears send a copy of "Master Plan" to their former manager?
"Roland was tempted to send it to our former manager with the word 'heritage'," Smith said.
"I haven't," Orzabal said. "To be honest, I haven't spoken with him since Curt and I parted ways with him. I don't know what he thinks of the record and I don't particularly care.
"This is a fact: You will get the best out of people by encouraging them, and we just didn't get that. When Curt and I were on the road before (touring), we'd have conflict. I think our old manager pitted us against each other and played us off one another."
What "Master Plan," "No Small Thing" and "The Tipping Point" album as a whole represent, ultimately, is a tuneful rebellion. It's a vivid documentation of two seasoned musicians rejecting predictability and music-biz tropes in order to reclaim their artistic integrity.
'Coming full circle'
"The beauty of the whole experience is that we are finally coming full circle," Orzabal said.
"It's us owning what we do and accepting the fact that the only person you really have to please is yourself. Pleasing myself and Curt is no easy thing, so that's when we know we're on to a good thing. And, yeah, this is a middle finger, which is kind of a brave thing."
Similarly brave, at least by today's cookie-cutter pop standards, is the minute-plus instrumental introduction to "The Tipping Point's" deeply moving title track.
In an era when more and more hit songs are little more than 15-second or 30-second TikTok videos, devoting so much time to an instrumental introduction sounds like a move Tears For Fears' now-former manager and record company would regard as commercial suicide.
"Oh, without question," Smith said. "They wouldn't have let us do any songs longer than three minutes. These songs are as long as we want them to be. It's important to have different moods. Our previous (manager and record company) we were involved with would have been happy to have 12 versions of the same song."
The title track of "The Tipping Point" was inspired by the 2017 death of Orzabal's wife, who had long struggled with depression and alcoholism.
"I went through a couple of pretty tough years," said Orzabal, who in 2021 married American writer and photographer Emily Rath.
"I think," added Smith, "any time we make music, it's cathartic, and that comes from our backgrounds. We are both individually and emotionally (reserved) people. But in times of crisis or pain, we tend to stop the pain by playing music, listening to music or writing songs. In this case, it was writing songs.
"We almost always take to songwriting when we're going through turmoil. When we're happy we very rarely pick up a guitar. That's not who we are."
Orzabal and Smith are excited about now being on their first world tour since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020. They are also excited at the prospect of mixing in five or six new songs from "The Tipping Point" with such tried-and-true favorites as "Shout," "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and "Mad World."
"When you're young and have the talent, ambition and fundamental understanding of the musical fashions of the time, you can have huge success," Orzabal said. "But life is a journey, personal and spiritual, and not just about career.
"So, I think it took a long time for Curt and me to get a strong sense of our new identity. That new identity is age-dependent, but we finally got there. And once we made that leap and accepted who we are and what our role is in the music industry and in the world, then everything came together.
"At some point you get older and we embrace it. That's why our hair dye went out the window! We can still do this. Just because we're older doesn't mean we're not important."
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