The Anniversary

Psychoanalysis was written into their destiny, starting with the band's very name. Tears For Fears. Because tears can replace fears – or so claimed Arthur Janov, author of that “Primal Scream” which had already inspired John Lennon and would later lend its name to another legendary UK band. It's a nameless pain, cultivated through adolescences of “quiet desperation” (to borrow from Pink Floyd), that steered Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith toward an obsessive interest in psychoanalysis, and in particular the American psychologist's primal therapy, a treatment that pushes people to overcome their fears through screams and shouts. Yes indeed, because “Shout” isn't the carefree anthem that its radiant – and gorgeous – video with the children's choir might suggest. But to get there, we need to take a step back…

The primal scream

Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith are two young men barely into their twenties when they break away from the ska quintet Graduate in 1980 to devote themselves to what would become the defining format of the decade: the electronic duo. At the dawn of the most glamorous decade, synthetic sounds are already all the rage, but Orzabal (the creative mind of the outfit) is old school at heart. A Beatles devotee, a fan of Peter Gabriel. He writes all the songs on his acoustic guitar, in his hometown of Bath. Smith, whom he met at 13 when he was singing Blue Oyster Cult songs, backs him on vocals. It's the encounter with keyboardist Ian Stanley that reveals to the duo the use of sequencers. A crucial discovery: the technology allows Tears For Fears to free themselves from the weight of a full band, projecting them into that synth-pop field which in 1981 would explode on the charts too, with “Dare” by Human League and “Speak & Spell” by Depeche Mode. As mentioned, the duo format also lent itself perfectly to the operation, and it's no coincidence it would become a hallmark of the decade, from Soft Cell to Pet Shop Boys, from Eurythmics to Yazoo.

A whole world was opening up for these two former sad British middle-class teenagers.

Here, then, in rapid succession, come the killer singles that would secure the fortune of their debut “The Hurting”, a manifesto of that blend of electronics and “real” instruments that would become the Tears For Fears trademark, resulting in pop in the noblest sense of the word. The intense “Suffer The Children” with its epic chorus, the straightforward electro-ballad “Pale Shelter” with its melancholy melody, and the solemn grandeur of “Mad World”, destined to become one of the anthems of the entire decade and beyond, given its sensational rediscovery in the 2000s thanks to Gary Jules's stripped-down piano-and-voice version, launched by the cult movie “Donnie Darko” (2001).

But it's all, always, a matter of psychoanalysis. The pair's initial idea, in fact, according to Smith, was to earn enough money from music to afford therapy, which was expensive at the time and only available in places like New York or Los Angeles. The cheaper alternative was to get it all out through songs: hence the deeper meaning of “The Hurting“: pain is scattered throughout the record, from the titles (“Ideas As Opiates”, “Prisoners Of Pain”, already chapter titles from Janov's books) to the lyrics, starting with “Mad World” itself: “And I find it kind of funny/ I find it kind of sad/ the dreams in which I’m dying are the best I ever had”. The same goes for childhood memories and traumas, evoked right from the cover art, and destined to populate many tracks, from the choir of “Suffer The Children” to the school memories of the ever-present “Mad World” (“Hallo teacher tell me what’s my lesson/ look right through me”), to the point of suggesting a psychoanalytic concept album, a true successor to “The Wall”, which was still touring at the time those songs were written, in 1981. The music matches the dark themes of the lyrics, playing on atmospheric electronics and intricate rhythms, the offspring of repeated listens to “Peter Gabriel III”.

Conquering America

The definitive recipe for success? Not quite. Because by the time of their second album, Tears For Fears had already changed course, sensing the shift underway at the turning point of the glittering 80s. And above all, they were determined to conquer America.

After being battered at the start of the decade by a second “British invasion” of synth-pop acts launched by the fledgling MTV, the United States is now responding with a return to order and to more traditional sounds. To break down the doors of success on the grand scale that only America can guarantee, Tears For Fears steer toward a more organic sound, in which synths are more decisively flanked by the instruments of a real band (Manny Elias on drums, Mel Collins on sax, Ian Stanley on keyboards), and the sound gains warmth and physicality, at the expense of the colder, more pictorial approach of the past. Besides, British pop itself is going through a phase of redefinition. The synth-pop wave that had dominated the early years of the decade, built on sequencers, electronic minimalism and a language often tied to European clubs, is giving way to a more hybrid form, less bound to machine aesthetics and more song-oriented. They'll call it new pop: airier productions, black music and soul influences in the rhythm section, immediate melodies and greater attention to FM radio-friendly construction. It's in this context that “Songs From The Big Chair” belongs, the second Tears For Fears album, a record that doesn't disown electronics but reworks it in service of a complex, layered sound that doesn't hide its prog leanings either. So much so that some would go on to speak explicitly of “progressive pop” regarding certain tracks on the album.

But to break through overseas, what's needed above all is more soul, and that's exactly what Curt Smith's voice delivers on that extraordinary chart assault, "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", one of the album's key singles. Chris Hughes's contribution to the song's composition is also decisive (having produced "The Hurting", here he's credited as a co-writer), pushing Orzabal to write a triumphant anthem in the wake of his own heroes, the Beatles. The result is a genuine soundtrack for Reagan's America, a luminous track with a stately, measured stride that seems custom-made to be enjoyed on the radio while driving, and lyrics that reflect the everyman's yearning for redemption and social climbing. "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" is one of the definitive songs of the Eighties, where the band's ability to stack radio "hooks" one on top of another reaches its peak, from the shimmer of the synths to the punchy guitar interjections, to a vocal that's one giant call to singalong, culminating in a refrain that could repeat itself forever.

It's precisely this magnetic force, held within a cohesive and compact sonic frame, that makes the second act a worthy continuation of the band's debut masterpiece. The album was originally meant to be titled "The Working Hour", but Roland Orzabal changed it to "Songs From The Big Chair", a title taken from the 1976 American TV film "Sybil", which tells - once again - another story about psychoanalysis: that of a woman with dissociative identity disorder who feels safe only when seated in her analyst's "big chair". The track "Big Chair", released as the B-side of the single "Shout", even features samples of dialogue from the show. According to Curt Smith, the title reflects both the distinct personalities of each song on the tracklist and the band's sense of being in the crosshairs of a hostile music press at the time. A press that, it must be said, never stopped snubbing them - one example above all: in Simon Reynolds's "Post-punk" bible, they're mentioned only to recall Paul Morley's cutting jibe - the music journalist on loan to Art of Noise - who quipped that "a monkey wrench is inherently more interesting than the singer of Tears For Fears".

In violent times

Yes, but "Shout"? The new primal scream is the chart-grabbing single. Not the first one pulled from the album - that honor goes to "Mothers Talk", released three months later, in November 1984 - but certainly the one that will drive it to success. A choral mantra in which the duo cries out loud a renewed zest for life against the backdrop of a grandiose wall of sound made of synthesizers and rock instruments, exploding into Orzabal's guitar solo. And with that line - "In violent times/ You shouldn't have to sell your soul" - ringing out like an everlasting warning. Notable is the presence of a biting rhythm guitar, adding body and physicality to what is a simply majestic build, running past the six-minute mark. The shift is both psychological and musical: the need for greater extroversion is answered by tearing down the new wave taboo against guitar-driven rock.

In the same aggressive vein sits the danceable "Mothers Talk", partly inspired by Raymond Briggs's graphic novel "When The Wind Blows" about the nuclear threat, driven by a pounding drumbeat and fleshed out with funky bass and gospel-style backing vocals, complete with a lysergic coda at the end, while "Broken" is more straightforwardly rock, propelled by the white-hot riff of Neil Taylor's guitar.

The peak of this energetic tendency, devoted to horror vacui, is however the wonderful "Head Over Heels", marked by a piano intro that takes no prisoners and destined to open up into yet another killer chorus, a genuine synth-pop experiment on steroids, ready-made to fill the vast spaces of American arenas. And all this without losing that hypnotic quality that lets Tears For Fears stretch these songs out over long running times without wearing the listener down - who instead ends up lulled, surrendering to the ocean of sound that Orzabal pours out from his imagination, ablaze with psychedelic colors. When "Head Over Heels" morphs into a mini-suite with a live reprise of "Broken", it's clear the pair are ready to bring their music to the masses. The Depeche Mode parallel is no coincidence, since this album's influence on the Basildon heroes seems undeniable (the sound of "Shout" is genuinely close to "Never Let Me Down Again"), though they would go on to complete the transition from synth-pop to stadium rock foreshadowed here, exploiting it in a far more sustained way.

The soft side, under the sign of Wyatt

The secret of "Songs From The Big Chair", however, also lies in the ballads, where Orzabal takes center stage, from the lush, paradisiacal sound of "Listen", which is new age ante litteram, to the ambient soul-jazz of the delicate "I Believe", dedicated to Robert Wyatt, whose influence Orzabal also seems to draw on vocally, in a performance that's remarkably delicate and intimate. The Canterbury guru is also honored with a sleeve note ("If he's listening") and with a cover of his poignant "Sea Song", included on the B-side of the American edition of the "Mothers Talk" single.

Also hushed are the warm, Latin-night atmospheres of "The Working Hour" - with Mel Collins (King Crimson) on sax and Jerry Marotta (Peter Gabriel) on percussion - which glides along on soft keyboard carpets, gentle percussion and saxophone breaks, ultimately leading the listener toward a kind of redemptive ecstasy: "This is the working hour/ we are paid by those who learn by our mistakes".

The album would reach number two in the UK and number one in the United States, going multi-platinum in several countries and becoming the band's best-selling studio album. The singles "Shout" and "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" would both top the Billboard Hot 100 and reach the top 5 of the UK Singles Chart, while "Head Over Heels", "Mothers Talk" and a new version of "I Believe" would also achieve strong international success.

For the few who might raise an eyebrow, it's worth reiterating that "Songs From The Big Chair" is not a betrayal of the spirit of the debut LP - if anything, it clarifies Tears For Fears's true calling: to reach the widest possible audience through a musical proposition of universal appeal, one rooted in the true pillars of English pop culture, the pop of the Beatles and soul music. Even though the album occasionally strays into "arena rock" territory, its ambition is grounded in authentically popular roots, and its success is all the more remarkable when one considers how rarely such transatlantic landslides have been repeated since. The record thus captures well the mindset of the new pop that followed new wave, which, rather than seeking to dismantle the music industry along post-punk lines, instead tried to contaminate it from within, through a cynical and shrewd awareness of commercial logic.

At the same time, as noted by Fabio Zuffanti in an interesting analysis for Rolling Stone, "Songs From The Big Chair" fits perfectly into that trajectory which, between 1981 and 1986, was expanding the boundaries of pop into a progressive (broadly speaking) direction, through works such as "Vienna" by Ultravox, "Hounds Of Love" by Kate Bush, "Rio" by Duran Duran, "The Colour Of Spring" by Talk Talk and "Remain In Light" by Talking Heads.

Tears For Fears thus took part in two great musical utopias: the iconoclastic (and often intellectualist) one of electronic new wave, and the populist one of mid-decade pop. And yet a total disconnect from reality was about to strike them inexorably. The era of "music for the masses" and cross-genre fusion was in fact about to be disowned in favor of a new breed of purists and an extreme fragmentation of musical knowledge. But that - once again - is another story.

The 40th-anniversary reissue

To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of “Songs From The Big Chair” – originally released on 25 February 1985 – Universal has put out a series of special, limited editions, including a Transparent Red 2LP vinyl featuring previously unused original artwork and tracks previously unavailable on vinyl, a three-CD deluxe edition, a transparent blue vinyl, and a picture disc.

A project that also makes room for some B-sides from the singles, which often reveal the duo's boldest experiments: besides the aforementioned “Sea Song”, tracks like “The Big Chair”, “Pharaohs”, “Empire Building”, “The Marauders” and “The Conflict” venture into near ambient-industrial territory.

Here is the full tracklist of the project.

2LP Red Vinyl – Limited Edition (Alternative Artwork)

Side one

• Shout – 6:32
• The Working Hour – 6:31
• Everybody Wants To Rule The World – 4:11
• Mothers Talk – 5:06

Side two

• I Believe – 4:55
• Broken – 2:38
• Head Over Heels – 5:02
• Listen – 6:53

Side three

• Shout (Alternative Mix) – 5:08 (first time on vinyl)
• The Working Hour (Piano Version) – 2:08 (first time on vinyl)
• Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Alternative Single Version) – 4:21 (first time on vinyl)
• Mothers Talk (Early Mix) – 4:39 (first time on vinyl)

Side four

• I Believe (A Soulful Re-Recording) – 4:42
• Broken (Demo) – 5:39 (first time on vinyl)
• Head Over Heels (Hughes 7″ Edit) – 4:16
• Listen (Clean Intro) – (first time on vinyl)

3CD set

Disc one – original album & B-sides

• Shout – 6:32 (original album)
• The Working Hour – 6:31 (original album)
• Everybody Wants To Rule The World – 4:11 (original album)
• Mothers Talk – 5:06 (original album)
• I Believe – 4:55 (original album)
• Broken – 2:38 (original album)
• Head Over Heels – 5:02 (original album)
• Listen – 6:53 (original album)
• The Big Chair – 3:21 (b-side to Shout)
• Empire Building – 2:52 (b-side to Mothers Talk)
• The Marauders – 4:15 (b-side to The Way You Are)
• Broken Revisited – 5:16 (bonus track ltd ed Songs From The Big Chair)
• The Conflict – 4:04 (b-side to Change)
• The Working Hour (Piano Version) – 2:08
• Pharaohs – 3:41 (b-side to Everybody Wants To Rule The World)
• When In Love With A Blind Man – 2:23 (b-side to Head Over Heels)
• Sea Song – 3:53 (b-side to I Believe / Mothers Talk US)

Disc two – edited songs from the big chair

• The Way You Are – 4:55
• Mothers Talk (Short Version) – 3:54
• Shout (Alternative Version) – 6:00
• Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Single Version) – 4:12
• Head Over Heels (Dave Bascombe 7″ N.Mix)
• I Believe (A Soulful Re-Recording) – 4:42
• Everybody Wants To Run The World – 4:34
• The Way You Are (Edit) – 4:21
• Mothers Talk (U.S. Remix) – 4:14
• Shout (U.S. Single Edit) – 4:06
• Everybody Wants To Run The World (Running Version) – 4:33
• Head Over Heels (Hughes 7″ Edit)
• Mothers Talk (Video Version) – 4:47
• Shout (7″ Edit) – 4:47
• Listen (Clean Intro) – 6:52
• Interview With Curt & Roland – 7:36

Disc three – remixed songs from the big chair

• The Way You Are (Extended) – 7:41
• Mothers Talk (Long Version) – 6:17
• Shout (UK Version / Extended Version) – 7:42
• Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Extended Version) – 5:40
• Broken / Head Over Heels / Broken (Preacher Mix) – 8:01
• Mothers Talk (Beat Of The Drum Mix) – 8:56
• Shout (Extended) – 8:00
• Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Urban Mix) – 6:01
• Mothers Talk (Alternate U.S. Remix) – 4:12
• Shout (US Dub Version) – 6:48
• Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Instrumental) – 4:23
• Shout (Acapella)

1LP transparent blue vinyl – limited edition

Side one

• Shout – 6:32
• The Working Hour – 6:31
• Everybody Wants To Rule The World – 4:11
• Mothers Talk – 5:06

Side two

• I Believe – 4:55
• Broken – 2:38
• Head Over Heels – 5:02
• Listen – 6:53

Limited edition picture disc

Side one

• Shout – 6:32
• The Working Hour – 6:31
• Everybody Wants To Rule The World – 4:11
• Mothers Talk – 5:06

Side two

• I Believe – 4:55
• Broken – 2:38
• Head Over Heels – 5:02
• Listen – 6:53

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16/04/2026