The Tipping Point
Tears for Fears / The Tipping Point / 2022 / CRE01856
Tears for Fears are one of the greatest pop bands of all time (dare I say, the greatest?). The Tipping Point marked the duos seventh studio album after eight years of on-and-off development and a nearly 18 year gap from 2004’s release of the proposed finale album Everybody Loves a Happy Ending. The release welcomed sincere praise as Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith entered the charts for the first time since the 1980’s, reaching second on UK Albums and eighth on US Billboard 200. Over the past few weeks I’ve been on a big The Seeds Of Love and Songs From The Big Chair kick upon reading and tapping into inspiration from Steven Wilson’s autobiography Limited Edition of One. Working my way through the discography I naturally started re-spinning The Tipping Point and I was reminded just why this album is so emotionally powerful and accurate to our current state of society.
Conceptually, The Tipping Point is a battle among multiple crossroads. Opening track No Small Thing is a sonic statement of independence as Roland and Curt were breaking free from producer standards and deciding to create the album that they really wanted to create. It’s a daring track with an acoustic opening evolving into a chaotic, pulsating guitar and synth outro as they break away from what the industry wants them to be. The Tipping Point and Please Be Happy are outcries influenced from Roland’s depressing experience of his wife passing in 2017 due to alcohol induced dementia. The title track is a very haunting piece full of keyboard effects, synth, and driving drums while Please Be Happy is a ballad that includes a jazz-esque trumpet solo reminiscent of the 1920’s that I love (maybe I should pull mine out of the closet and dust it off…). Long, Long, Long Time and Stay touch on the washy but redeemed relationship between Roland and Curt. Smith stepped away from the band in the 1990’s but came back in 2004 for their sixth record Everybody Loves a Happy Ending. Since then, Curt has threatened to step away from the band multiple times as he was not content with where they were heading and was unsure of what he wanted in his own life. Fortunately that ownership manifested and became clear for him throughout 2020 and 2021 as they sat down together and wrote the bulk remainder of this musical masterpiece. Rivers of Mercy is my favorite track on the entire record. It’s a passionate ballad that reflects on the emotional mess of the pandemic and societal uproar of the summer of 2020. It presents itself in a hopeful, warming, spiritual way (similar to Woman in Chains) and is carried by a walking bass guitar line and grand piano chords. The vocal layering and bridge give me chills down my spine every listen. It’s an emotionally impactful song that never fails to move me. According to Curt “…it’s a song about redemption and an attempt to escape the horrors we were seeing on TV - the answer is always love”.
The album was produced under a collaborative effort of Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith, Charlton Pettus, Florian Reutter, and Sacha Skarbek. The symbolic cover art was designed by Cinta Vidal.
*Note - I highly recommend listening to the Dolby Atmos mix of this album on Apple Music for the best experience
