Tears for Fears - The Tipping Point

Tears for Fears released an album today; it's called The Tipping Point. I'm the king of wishful thinking, it might be good. No, wait, that's Stabbing Westward. No, that's not right either. Head Left? Oh right, Go West. Ok, now that's straightened out. It's been about 18 years since their last one so who knows what to expect. Still, people are people... no, that's the ala mode guys. Man, 42 hit me hard. 

Ok, Tears for Fears, which one were they? Shout, Head Over Heels, Sowing the Seeds of Love, Everybody Wants to Rule the World. No that's definitely not true. I don't want to rule the world, for one. Ben Burnley, for two, doesn't want to rule the world, he just wants to leave it colder. It's 9-degrees right now, so that's appropriate. 

I guess Curt got frustrated halfway through and told Roland to "do it if you want but leave me out." Roland's wife died in 2017, he said the last album was their last album, so i guess they talked about it and figured out a way to finish this album in such a way Curt didn't stop participating. They started way back in 2020, so the struggle seems legit, at least. Those things don't go together, i'm just flailing for context. I expect sleekly polished popternative songs about feelings and stuff. I have those sometimes, guess it's time to give it a whirl and find out if i'll be crying from all the fright. 

Bonus 7" hiding in there as well, so that fun. It's a good opener, but it's unmistakably the Lumineers. I don't say that as an actual criticism, so much as to point out that my brain is very much punctuating the lyrics with "hey!" and "ho!" 

I'm not imagining that weird synthy stuff way down in the mix, am i? No, i'm not imagining it at all. Are we in for some bloop-bleeping and wackadoodleness? I hope so, 'cause wow that was a really exciting opener. 

Oh yeah, like borderline glitchtronica for the title track. It has a very Peter Gabriel/Growing Up vibe, with the word "ghost" and exactly the kind of bleep-blooping i anticipated. I like where this is going so far. 

Dubstep? Really? Ok, i'm not complaining, i just wasn't expecting such a heavy electronica influence. 

Lofi House, ok, i see you guys are serious. 

Damn, that was a total u-turn for My Demons. A little funky, a whole lot paranoid, and the lyric "cos my demons don't get out that much" is a great lyric. 

That was a Side A, no doubt about it. Any chance Side B begins with police sirens and gunshots? Well i'll be damned, and an accordion, to boot. The song itself is a bit of a downer, but i can't call it the wrong choice. 

Muted trumpet solo for all the feels. 

There's the weird electronica, i was starting to wonder if Side B would be a total crapshoot, but it is a fair bit Beatles-esque psychedelia, albeit in a Tears for Fears kind of way. 

Goldfrapp, End of the Night just immediately feels like Goldfrapp meets The Killers. Like 30bpm slower, but still. 

Oooh, that acoustic guitar part is haunting. More of that Peter Gabriel vibe, but a good ending. 

I am totally surprised, this is not at all what i was expecting. For all its obvious stylistic borrowings and electronica tropes, this is a super creative album. It's all over the place, but it still somehow feels coherent. I don't think you could ever condense it down to a witty little blurb, but this is great. The Tipping Point is really fun to listen to, and i guarantee it will keep you engaged from start to finish. It's definitely not a Friday night house party album, but as a listening experience it's pretty stellar. Color me a slightly sky bluish color of impressed.