Songs From the Big Chair

by Tears for Fears

Overview

If The Hurting was mental anguish, Songs from the Big Chair marks the progression towards emotional healing, a particularly bold sort of catharsis culled from Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith's shared attraction to primal scream therapy. The album also heralded a dramatic maturation in the band's music, away from the synth-pop brand with which it was (unjustly) seared following the debut, and towards a complex, enveloping pop sophistication. The songwriting of Orzabal, Smith, and keyboardist Ian Stanley took a huge leap forward, drawing on reserves of palpable emotion and lovely, protracted melodies that draw just as much on soul and R&B music as they do on immediate pop hooks. The album could almost be called pseudo-conceptual, as each song holds its place and each is integral to the overall tapestry, a single-minded resolve that is easy to overlook when an album is as commercially successful as Songs from the Big Chair. And commercially successful it was, containing no less than three huge commercial radio hits, including the dramatic and insistent march, "Shout" and the shimmering, cascading "Head Over Heels," which, tellingly, is actually part of a song suite on the album. Orzabal and Smith's penchant for theorizing with steely-eyed austerity was mistaken for harsh bombasticism in some quarters, but separated from its era, the album only seems earnestly passionate and immediate, and each song has the same driven intent and the same glistening remoteness. It is not only a commercial triumph, it is an artistic tour de force. And in the loping, percolating "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," Tears for Fears perfectly captured the zeitgeist of the mid-'80s while impossibly managing to also create a dreamy, timeless pop classic. Songs from the Big Chair is one of the finest statements of the decade. ~ Stanton Swihart

Product Details

Release Date:	11/10/2014
Label:	Mercury / Virgin Emi
UPC:	0602537949953
Rank:	18628

Tracks

1. Shout
2. The Working Hour
3. Everybody Wants to Rule the World
4. Mothers Talk
5. I Believe
6. Broken
7. Head Over Heels/Broken
8. Listen

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Tears for Fears   Primary Artist
Roland Orzabal   Keyboards,Lead Vocals,Piano (Grand),Guitar,Vocals
Jerry Marotta   Drums
Sandy McLelland   Vocals (Background)
Mel Collins   Saxophone
Manny Elias   Drums
Ian Stanley   Keyboards
Curt Smith   Bass,Vocals,Guitar (Bass),Synthesizer Bass
Stevie Lange   Vocals (Background)
William Gregory   Soloist,Saxophone
Annie McCaig   Vocals (Background)
Marilyn Davis   Vocals,Vocals (Background)
Stevie Vann   Vocals (Background)
Neil Taylor   Guitar,Soloist
Andy Davis   Keyboards,Piano (Grand)
Chris Hughes   Drums

Technical Credits

Roland Orzabal   Vocal Arrangement,Composer
Jerry Marotta   Saxophone Arrangement
Robert Wyatt   Composer
Ronald Isley   Composer
Rudolph Isley   Composer
Kathy Valentine   Composer
Michael Barbiero   Remixing
O'Kelly Isley   Composer
David Bascombe   Engineer
Dave Bascombe   Engineer
Cait O'Riordan   Composer
Manny Elias   Composer,Drum Arrangements
Steve Thompson   Remixing
Ian Stanley   Arranger,Composer,Producer,Drum Programming
Curt Smith   Composer
Andrew Walter   Mastering
Curt Evans   Artwork
Mark Lettieri   Composer
Immanuel Elias   Composer
Paul Sinclair   Interviewer,Liner Notes,Sleeve Notes
Tim O’Sullivan   Cover Photo
Steve Hammonds   Project Coordinator
Steve Wilson   Mixing
Charlotte Caffey   Composer
Chris Hughes   Composer,Producer
Benny Andersson   Composer
Johnson   Composer
Bjoern Ulvaeus   Composer