Tears For Fears – ‘The Hurting’ 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

In case at stating the obvious, but looking at a sway of electro and indie in today’s music landscape, after thirty years, Tears For Fears debut album, ‘The Hurting’ released here as part of a Deluxe Edition, in multiple formats, is as relevant now today, in this century as 1983’s ‘The Hurting’. A fact not lost on the collective minds of the bods at Universal Music Catalogue and Virgin EMI as this 4 Disc set which includes the original album, is also backed with several other discs detailing Live Sessions, B-sides and Remixes in a “Unique Box Set”.

Thirty years ago, in March 1983, Tears For Fears released their influential synth-pop debut, ‘The Hurting’. The critical acclaim and commercial success that greeted the album was the culmination of 18 months of hard work.
The birthplace of Tears For Fears was the City of Bath in Somerset, South West England. It was there that Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith met as teenagers in the late seventies and a friendship evolved into a musical alliance that endures to this day.
Roland and Curt briefly called themselves History Of Headaches, but this was soon changed to Tears For Fears. The chosen name was a reference to the work of American psychologist Arthur Janov, who in the late 1960s developed Primal Therapy – a trauma-based psychotherapy that attempts to resolve repressed childhood pain.

‘Mad World’ original music video

It was keyboard player Ian Stanley who brought technology to the table and helped Tears For Fears fulfill their sonic ambitions. Roland has no doubts how important he was. “Without Ian’s eight-track studio, his Roland JP4, his CR78 drum machine and MXR Pitch Transposer, we wouldn’t be where we are now…. He gave us the opportunity to demo, at his home studio, songs such as ‘Pale Shelter’, ‘Change’ and ‘Mad World’.” The hard work was rewarded when Mad World was released in September 1982, and peaked at number three in the UK singles chart in November; Undoubtably helped when friend Steven Martin bought me the vinyl copy of ‘Mad World’ for my birthday, the beginning of my adoration for this new band and by the time of ‘The Hurting’ album, after the warm Glow of Combat Rock faded into a sad break up of a great band, I was lost in a singles in a world populated by ‘99 Luftballons’, ‘This Charming man’ and ‘China Girl’ and listening the ‘The Hurting’ back in 1983 alongside LPs by The Damned’s ‘Live In Newcastle’ and XTC’s ‘Murder’ album making an eclectic school boy range of tastes which still survive, for all of Tears For Fears future artistic and chart success, the first album left a positive indelible impression on my music tastes.

‘The Hurting’ performed live

The draw of ‘The Hurting’ is not really straight laced pop, the narrative of the album is strong, to say the least, at times brutal, cold, even occasionally bare and fragile – all of which are part of the album’s impassioned appeal. Which sits aside wondrous pop moments such as signature singles ‘Mad World’, ‘Change’ or the more broken dialogue of ‘Pale Shelter’ but listen to the then newer sound of the  title track  and you have at least the narrative key note. For some of the album supporting cast, The Prisoner set to bombastic relentless drum beat and vocal samples or ‘Start Of The Breakdown’ which still shine bright from the original album. (8.8/10)

Enjoy Tears For fears – The Prisoner’

Strap in, we are only at Disc 2, titled ‘Singles, B-Sides, Mixes & Rarities’ even from the first single, Curt and Roland et al always seem to respect the b-side. The opening song though could be filed in the rarer file, so the original version of ‘suffer The Children’ expands on the album version which has a little less and more electro, but the original still sounds as good if a little short on studio equipment and editing facilities, the same can be said of the original versions of ‘Pale Shelter’, ‘The Prisoner’ with the alternative version of ‘Ideas As Opiates’ is pants, though all the songs are there in spirit at least, just about. In 2013 they make interesting listening; and just as I contemplate some of these songs should be re-recorded with modern production, that’s exactly what the band have done with ‘Change’ (New Version) which musically may be richer, but the song has lost it’s snap, its attack, a good ripple if not the splash. Surprisingly, the remix of ‘Suffer Little Children’ works, as does the long version of ‘Pale Shelter’; but a phatter beat of ‘Mad World’ (Wild Version) fares less well. Down to the B-sides especially ‘The Conflict’ and ‘We Are Broken’ both of which stand up well. (7.3/10)

With more atmosphere and pose are The BBC Sessions with John Peel and Kid Jensen recorded in 1982 the songs are full of innovation, The John Peel session recorded 1/9/1982 sounds heavier and well, don’t know of it was Maida Vale, but the alternate versions , tweaked here and there, are somehow more weighty, all are performed with some aplomb, songs featured were ‘Ideas As Opiates’ which sounds very good here In Session, ‘Suffer Little Children’, ‘The Prisoner’ and ‘The Hurting’. The Jensen Session ran with ‘Memories Fade’, ‘The Prisoner’, ‘Start Of The Breakdown’ and ‘The Hurting’ guess the need to experiment on the Jenson session, some 9 months later after the John Peel one, is striking a stronger pop or we could even describe as ‘more elecro’ first time i thought ‘Start Of the Breakdown’ could be described as a pop song, albeit on something like Bladerunner. just for good measure to prepare for the live DVD their is a bonafide fairly normal live renditions, the first from The Oxford Apollo in 1983, represented here with a gusty version of ‘Start Of The Breakdown’, with an uncredited live outing, with a rousing, if a little keyed up rendition of ‘Change’. (7.5/10)

Watch ‘Ideas As Opiates’  from ‘In My Mind’s Eye’ Live At Hammersmith

Allo to soon we’re at disc 4, ‘In My Mind’s Eye’ Live At Hammersmith DVD – This is the first time this has been released on DVD. from the set opener track, ‘Start Of The Breakdown’ two things are apparently, tears for fears can pull it off live and the 1964 sound is spot on complete with 1980’s visual effects, that don’t really get in the way that much – think Tron and then get ready for vector graphics. Also The Hurting live set is augmented a little, with ‘When ‘Mothers Talk’, ‘The Working Hour’ and described here as new ‘We Are Broken’ that segways into ‘Head Over Heels’ – an early taste of what’s to cone, all welcomed addition to an already  good set. The live atmosphere is first warmed by ‘The Working Hour’ before being truly charged with the live version of ‘The Prisoner’ and the temperature raised, just sitting there, high, as as album stalwarts ‘Ideas As Opiates’ and ‘Mad World’ hit home, back to back. We’re only half way through and the crowd are blown away, ‘Mad World’ live really kicks with extra musical muscle. ‘Suffer Little Children’ stands out and signals a trio of songs to cap what must have been a great night the Hammersmith Odeon audience enjoyed. Best leave it there, for fans to discern, one clue, all three remaining songs go down an absolute storm. Even with the visual ‘trickery’ this DVD represents a very good live document, fair to say, pretty pleased this live set albeit in 1984, has come to light. 8.4/10)

To sum up is difficult,‘The Hurting’ set a high standard,  which amazingly Tears For Fears later surpassed, but this debut alb still shines bright. the fact that 30 years later there is a Super Deluxe Box Set, so much the better. ‘The Hurting’ album has only been added to with the odd tasty disc appendix. Really can’t see a lot more that could have been added, expect fot the original videos and TV appearances, but that’[s just nit-picking. A quality release (8.9/10)
Steve Janes

Finally another album track the impressive ‘Memories Fade’