Tears For Fears Back With New Album

'The Tipping Point' Due Out February 2022

Tears For Fears is back with a new single, "The Tipping Point." An album by the same name will follow, currently scheduled for release on February 25, 2022. Tears For Fears is the synth-pop band behind the 80's hits "Everybody Wants To Rule The World," "Shout" and "Head Over Heels." It's been 17 years since their last release, Everybody Loves A Happy Ending.

The band has been working on this material for some time. The duo of Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal confirmed way back in 2013 that they were working on new material for an album. A release date was even scheduled for 2017, only to be pushed back. These delays were for a number of reasons.

One was the material. Smith noted in an interview with BBC Radio 2 that management encouraged them to update their sound. They tried to sound more like the popular mainstream music of today but weren't satisfied with the results. In the end, Smith says they scrapped about half the album and started over, staying true to their roots.

While it's not mentioned directly, the 2017 death of Orzabel's wife was probably a factor as well. In an October interview with The Guardian, Orzabal describes his wife's slow death from cirrhosis. In 2007, struggling with menopause and depression, she was prescribed pills that couldn't be combined with alcohol - only she did.

The problems snowballed into cirrhosis, and later alcohol-related dementia. Orzabel states that he spent 5 years as her carer before she finally passed away in 2017.

The duo also switched management companies to Concord Records, feeling that their old management had become too oppressive and controlling. In particular, they didn't like being forced to write music with mainstream artists, creating a sound that felt inauthentic.

They released the first single and title track, "The Tipping Point," on October 7 2021 on BBC Radio 2. After the song debuted, listeners were invited to call in. Many long-time fans had positive feedback and confirmed that the sound's style resembled classic Tears For Fears. Watch it yourself below:

Orzabal explains in an interview with Roling Stone how he wrote the song while his wife was dying. “It came at a time when my (late) wife was very ill. I was watching her become a ghost of her former self. So the song’s narrator is in a hospital ward looking at people about to cross the threshold that we call death,” Orzabal tells Rolling Stone.

Super Deluxe Edition describes the album as, "...full of brilliant pop songs that traverse darkness and light and at times chart both personal and global crises."

The Tipping Point Tracklist includes:

1. No Small Thing 2. The Tipping Point 3. Long, Long, Long Time 4. Break The Man 5. My Demons 6. Rivers Of Mercy 7. Please Be Happy 8. Master Plan 9. End Of Night 10. Stay

Additional Tracks (Deluxe CD Edition)

11. Let It All Evolve 12. Secret Location 13. Shame (Cry Heaven)

Pre-orders for the album are available here.

Jamie Dixon is a contributing writer here at The Pyrrhic. She's a content writer by profession, but this is more fun. She's also working on her first novel in her spare time.

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