Project 1001: Songs From The Big Chair by Tears For Fears
Welcome to your life / There's no turning back
This album starts with the epic anthem “Shout” that I submit is one of the harder rocking songs ever released by a pop music artist. I’ve always felt it ripe for a cover version by a hard rock/metal band ala Disturbed and their incredible version of "The Sound of Silence". I love how it builds throughout the song to a commanding crescendo. “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” for my money is one of the best pop songs of the 80s and ranks right up there for any decade. I’m not the only one who thinks so. Check out this guy:
I remember this album always being played by someone in my dorm freshmen year. Even metal fans seemed to like it as they didn’t dump on it with the same disdain reserved for other popular acts of the time. I’d hear them say something like, “Well, it doesn’t suck.” That amounts to effusive praise coming out of the mouth of a Maiden or Priest fan at that time.
Songs From The Big Chair is one of the best albums of the 80s and has zero weak spots. An amazing piece of work from a great duo. My Rating:
I’d love to hear what you think about the album and the playlist below!
Pitchfork has an extensive look at Songs From The Big Chair. It goes into the making of the album with all sorts of excellent tidbits.
I encourage you to read the whole thing. It says, in part:
On their second LP, 1985’s Songs From the Big Chair, Tears for Fears took a cue from (John) Lennon and applied what they’d learned from (Arthur) Janov toward studies of single subjects: money, power, love, war, faith. But where Lennon went small, Tears for Fears went huge. They took the goth and synth-pop foundation they constructed on their debut, 1983’s The Hurting, and piled on saxophone, Fairlights, guitar solos, samplers, and live drums on top of drum machines. They wrote cresting choruses, arena-ready anthems, elegant ballads, and multi-section songs that have more in common with prog-rock than most of new wave. And they improbably created not just one of the biggest albums of the 1980s, but an album that manages to exude the 1980s in the same way that Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours conveys the lonely narcissism and hedonism of the ’70s, or Love’s Forever Changes captures both the bliss and the ominousness of the Summer of Love.1
Rolling Stone:
What nudges Songs from the Big Chair slightly ahead of the pack is the sparkling production by Chris Hughes, which aspires to and sometimes achieves the chilly grandeur of Thomas Dolby's studio work. The songs inevitably progress toward dense noise, but they always begin with pristine snatches of odd hooks juxtaposed to suggest spaciousness and atmosphere.2
AllMusic:
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.3
Sylus magazine:
Despite the titanic stature of the three hit singles, Songs from the Big Chair still works impressively well as a full-length. Album tracks like “The Working Hour” and “Broken” weave the singles together with perfect pacing, while forwarding the album and remaining highly listenable themselves. Together, the eight songs form a much more powerful and cohesive statement than that of The Hurting, even approaching concept album territory at points without ever letting the notion bog the album down for too long. Even today, when all rock musicians seem to be able to do is be emotional and honest, the brutality and power of Songs from the Big Chair’s catharsis is still quite shocking. “But I don’t really think we’re trying to do much more with our music than sell a few records,” Orzabal still insisted at the time in a San Antionio Light interview. “Certainly many of our songs have a message. But ultimately people don’t listen.”4
In 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, John Doran wrote:
For a brief time, Tears For Fears became the biggest band on the face of the planet on the strength of this album - a release that ranks alongside Dare by The Human League, Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret by Soft Cell, and The Lexicon of Love by ABC as one of the best pop records of the decade.5
Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!
Prime Playlist: 162. Songs From The Big Chair by Tears for Fears
Charts
• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: #16
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart:
> “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, #1
> “Shout”, #1
> “Head Over Heels”, #3
> “Mothers Talk”, #277
• RIAA certification: 5x Platinum | May 15, 19958
Released on February 25, 1985. Here’s what else was happening:
Pop Culture
• Number one song: “Careless Whisper” by Wham9
• Number one album: Like a Virgin by Madonna10
• Number one movie: Beverly Hills Cop by Martin Brest11
• Most watched TV programs: Dynasty, Dallas, The Cosby Show, 60 Minutes, Family Ties, The A-Team, Simon & Simon, Murder, She Wrote, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest, Crazy Like a Fox12
• NYT bestseller, fiction: If Tomorrow Comes by Sidney Sheldon13
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca14
Some other albums released that month
• Secret Secrets by Joan Armatrading
• Night Time by Killing Joke
• Meat Is Murder by The Smiths
• The Firm by The Firm
• Vision Quest (soundtrack) by Various Artists
• Rhythm of the Night by DeBarge
• Whitney Houston by Whitney Houston
• Vulture Culture by Alan Parsons Project
• No Jacket Required by Phil Collins
• Starpeace by Yoko Ono
• The Breakfast Club (soundtrack) by Various Artists
• Armed and Dangerous by Anthrax
• Beyond Appearances by Santana
• Love Bomb by The Tubes15
Sport
• Feb 21 Largest NBA crowd to date 44,970 (Atlanta at Detroit in the Pontiac Silverdome).
• Feb 21 National League baseball player Tim Raines is awarded a $1.2 million salary for 1985 by arbitrator.
• Feb 23 Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight throws a chair onto the court during a game.
• Mar 3 Bill Shoemaker becomes 1st jockey to win $100 million.
• Mar 5 New York Islanders Mike Bossy is 1st to score 50 goals in 8 straight seasons.
• Mar 6 Enos Slaughter and Arky Vaughan elected to baseball's Hall of Fame.
• Mar 6 Future undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson KOs Hector Mercedes at 1:47 in round 1 of 4 in Albany, NY in his first professional fight. 16
Notable Births
• Feb 19 Haylie Duff, American actress (7th Heaven; Napoleon Dynamite), and singer-songwriter, born in Houston, Texas.
• Feb 24 Jim Kelly (Houston USFL) passes for pro football record 574 yds.
• Feb 25 Joakim Noah, American basketball player.
• Feb 26 Ally Hilfiger, American actress and daughter of Tommy Hilfiger, born in New York City.
• Mar 2 Reggie Bush, American NFL running back (Heisman Trophy 2005) USC; Super Bowl 2009, New Orleans Saints), born in Spring Valley, California.
• Mar 2 Robert Iler, American actor (A.J. Soprano, The Sopranos).17
Historical Events
• Feb 19 150 killed when a Spanish jetliner crashes approaching Bilbao, Spain.
• Feb 19 Canned & bottled Cherry Coke introduced by Coca-Cola.
• Feb 19 Mickey Mouse welcomed in China.
• Feb 19 William Schroeder is 1st artificial heart patient to leave hospital He spends 15 minutes outside Humana Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.
• Feb 24 Birendra, Bir Bikram Shah Dev crowned King of Nepal.
• Feb 26 27th Grammy Awards: "What's Love Got to Do With It?", and Cyndi Lauper win.
• Feb 27 Farmers converge in Washington to demand economic relief.
• Mar 1 Pentagon accepts theory that atomic war would cause a nuclear winter.
• Mar 2 FDA in the US approves an ELISA screening test for AIDS antibody for all blood banks.
• Mar 4 Virtual ban on leaded gas ordered by US Environment Protection Agency.
• Mar 4 WWII veterans return to the "Bridge over the River Kwai".
• Mar 5 Mexican authorities find the body of US drug agent Enrique "Kike" Camarena Salazar.18
Notable Deaths
• Feb 19 Elizabeth Julesberg, author (Dick & Jane), dies.
• Feb 20 Clarence Nash, American voice actor (Donald Duck), dies of leukemia at 80.
• Feb 21 Ina Claire [Fagan], American stage and screen actress (Ninotchika), dies of a heart attack at 91.
• Feb 22 Alexander Scourby, American actor (Victory at Sea, Ransom), dies at 71.
• Feb 22 Efrem Zimbalist Sr, Russian-American violinist composer, and educator (Curtis Institute, 1928-68), dies at 95.
• Feb 27 David Huffman, American actor (FIST, Jane Doe, Firefox, Onion Field), murdered at 39.
• Feb 27 J Pat O'Malley, Irish-British actor (101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book), dies at 80.
• Feb 28 Charita Bauer, American actress (The Guiding Light, Aldrich Family), dies following long illness at 62.
• Mar 1 Eugene List, American concert pianist and teacher (Eastman School of Music), dies at 66.
• Mar 3 Sarah Blanding, 1st US fem college head (Vassar 1946-64), dies at 86.19
Doran, John, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Fifth printing, ed. by Robert Dimmery p. 531.
Ibid.
I'm subscribed to Rick Beato's Youtube page. I like how he analyzes songs, solos, intros, whatever. He really breaks that one down nicely. Good stuff! I do love that song. Maybe I'll try to pull off an acoustic version of my own. Cheers!