Only eight songs, and not one you’d skip. On Songs from the Big Chair, Tears for Fears took the gloom of their debut and blew it up to widescreen size. Two of those eight songs went to number one in America.
From the bedroom to the big chair
After the moody synth-pop of The Hurting (1983), Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith worked with producer Chris Hughes on something bigger. The title comes from the TV film Sybil, about a woman who felt safe only in her analyst’s big chair. Phonogram released it on 25 February 1985. It went to number two in the UK and number one in the US, sold multi-platinum and is still their most successful album.
The songs that matter
- “Shout”: a protest song you can scream along to, built over a slow, pounding beat.
- “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”: written quickly near the end of the sessions, and the most effortless-sounding hit of 1985.
- “Head over Heels”: romantic, swirling and perfectly paced.
- “Mothers Talk” and “The Working Hour”: the jazzier, more experimental side of the album. “Mothers Talk” was actually the first single.
- “I Believe”: a quiet, soulful ballad, and the fifth single.
Why it still holds up
It’s ambitious without being bloated, and emotional without being mopey. Songs from the Big Chair is where ’80s new wave synth-pop reached its most polished and confident form.
Hear it on New Wave Radio
Read the full story on our Tears for Fears page, then request “Head over Heels”.
Links: New Wave Album Reviews · Duran Duran, Rio
