Amazon.co.uk Review
Few people would think to match the synth-heavy
Tears for Fears who lit up the '80s, to the new material on
Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, the band's first since 1989. The vocals of lead singer Roland Orzabal, powered by some all-cylinders thing, still squash all traces of irony in their path, and there's a moodiness to the music, minus a lot of the old broodiness, that borders on the masterly. Yet the sound has changed completely. Old-school overproduction has fallen away in favour of real guitars, pounding pianos, and a melody-driven, Beatles-y sensibility. It's there on the title track and first single "Call Me Mellow," and only slightly eclipsed by something pleasantly Bacharach-ish on "Secret World." Everybody who loves a happy ending will find one here: Tears for Fears skirts the has-been trap impressively, translating years of experience into play-it-again, sophisticated modern pop worth paying attention to.
--Tammy La Gorce
Review
In many regards, history has been unexpectedly kind to Tears For Fears. Their older records have aged surprisingly well, even if the videos would be better preserved in concrete underground. What exactly were those Karate Kid moves all about?
Everybody Loves A Happy Ending marks the first proper Tears For Fears record since The Seeds Of Love, and what is most striking at first is how little different it sounds. At some point, in the late 1980s it seems, Roland Orzabal fell in love with Brian Wilson and left the DX7s to gather dust. And the result was ecstasy...no, sorry, I meant the result was XTC.
It would be rather undignified to return now with sweatbands aloft (they are, after all, in their mid-forties). It is curious, though, how such classic purveyors of the electro-pop duo template have ended up comfortably snuggled up in their parents' record collection. The primal screams have evidently given way to big soft cuddles. And with such sweet natured psychedelic gems as "Call Me Mellow", Everybody Loves A Happy Ending is definitely this year's best World Party album, if not the best Tears For Fears one. --Chris Hilliard
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Product Description
A more recent album here from Tears For Fears but they still manage to show their quality song writing ability
