Tears For Fears release 'The Tipping Point'

On Friday, iconic British duo Tears For Fears released their anticipated first studio album in 17 years, “The Tipping Point,” via Concord Records. The band’s team said, “ ‘The Tipping Point’ is the bold, beautiful and powerful sound of Tears For Fears finding themselves together, once again.”

Listen to “The Tipping Point” here.

Last October, the pair released the first single and title track, “The Tipping Point," described as “capturing the grief of watching someone you love lose their long-standing battle with disease.” The second single, “No Small Thing,” was “a meeting of the minds as the pair went back to the drawing board and found the heart and soul that would complete the album. The accompanying video was made using solely found footage showing the conflict between individual freedoms and collective responsibility.” Their latest single, “Break The Man,” is “an empowering yet groovy track that calls for a better balance between men and women. Inspired by the song’s lyrics, the music video encompasses a world that illustrates the constructed reality of the patriarchy – a place of endless hierarchies built on blind devotion to unstable and unsustainable structures. From the inside, the world appears infinite, but from the outside it’s a mere plaything in the hand of Mother Universe.”

In November, the band announced “The Tipping Point World Tour,” with support from Garbage on the U.S. leg. These dates will mark the band’s first U.S. tour since 2017. For a full list of dates, or for tickets and more information, visit the band's website here.

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‘The Tipping Point’ Track Listings

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 on the deluxe CD edition include:

11. “Let It All Evolve”

12. “Secret Location”

13. “Shame (Cry Heaven) ”

WATCH:

Tears For Fears – Orzabal (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Smith (vocals, bass, keyboards) – formed in Bath, England, in 1981. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, performing to countless sold-out audiences, and winning various awards, the band represent an inimitable intersection of pop palatability, clever and cognizant lyricism, guitar bombast, and new wave innovation.

Their 1983 debut, “The Hurting,” yielded anthems such as “Mad World,” “Change” and “Pale Shelter,” reaching RIAA Gold status in the U.S. 1985’s “Songs from the Big Chair” became a watershed moment for the group and music at large. Boasting the signature BRIT Award-winning “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” “Shout,” “Head over Heels,” “Mothers Talk” and “I Believe (A Soulful Re-Recording),” it went quintuple-Platinum and No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200. Slant dubbed it one of “The Best Albums of the 1980s.” It was featured in the book “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die,” and Consequence of Sound awarded it a rare A+ rating in a 20-year retrospective.

1989’s “Seeds of Love” proved to be Orzabal and Smith’s last collaboration together until “Everybody Loves A Happy Ending” in 2004, which rekindled the creative fire between them. The band engaged in a three-year touring whirlwind across North America, Japan, South Korea, Manila and South America beginning in 2010.

2013 saw TFF return with their first recorded music in a decade: a cover of Arcade Fire’s “Ready to Start.” The band returned once more in 2017 with the “Rule The World” best-of collection, which once more catapulted the band back to the upper echelon of the U.K. album charts.

The duo’s DNA remains embedded within three generations of artists on both subtle and overt levels. Quietly casting a shadow over rock, hip-hop, electronic dance music, indie and beyond, Kanye West interpolated “Memories Fade” on “The Coldest Winter” from the seminal “808s & Heartbreak.” The Weeknd infused “Pale Shelter” into Starboy’s “Secrets.” David Guetta sampled “Change” for “Always.” Drake utilized “Ideas as Opiates” as the foundation for “Lust For Life.” Ally Brooke Hernandez, Adam Lambert and Gary Jules recorded popular covers of “Mad World.” Disturbed took on “Shout” – and that’s only to name a few. Lorde cut a haunting cover of “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” for the soundtrack of the blockbuster “The Hunger Games – Catching Fire,” which Tears For Fears gleefully would use as intro music live and thus bring everything full circle.

Meanwhile, classic songs figure prominently everywhere from “The Wire” and “Donnie Darko” to “Straight Outta Compton” and “Mr. Robot.”

Long before they became a cultural cornerstone, Tears For Fears simply consisted of two school friends growing up in Bath, Somerset U.K.

With “The Tipping Point” and comprehensive touring plans on the horizon, Orzabal and Smith remain as loud as ever – while yet another generation gets ready to “Shout” with them all over again.

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