{"id":13322,"date":"2025-02-18T16:57:22","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T16:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wers.org\/wecb\/milkcrate\/2025-2-18-songs-from-the-big-chair-at-40\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T10:06:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T14:06:51","slug":"2025-2-18-songs-from-the-big-chair-at-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orgs.emerson.edu\/wecb\/milkcrate\/2025-2-18-songs-from-the-big-chair-at-40\/","title":{"rendered":"“Songs From The Big Chair” at 40"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Graphic by Remy Foeller<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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by Charlie Desjardins<\/h1>\n

There\u2019s a distinctive sound in Tears For Fears\u2019 1985 synthpop masterpiece Songs From The Big Chair<\/em> that I haven\u2019t quite been able to put my finger on. It\u2019s spacious yet tight, catchy yet elusive, menacing yet beautiful. It\u2019s simply catchier than any pop music released in the \u201880s, a musical era respected purely for its catchiness.<\/p>\n

It simply sounds like no other.<\/p>\n

In 1983, two years prior, vocalist\/guitarist Roland Orzabal and vocalist\/bassist Curt Smith, along with keyboardist Ian Stanley and drummer Manny Elias, faced criticism for their music being just the opposite: derivative. Their debut album, The Hurting<\/em>, a monumental odyssey about childhood trauma, shot them to superstardom in a UK music scene dominated by happy-go-lucky Spandau Ballet and Bananarama. As a result, Tears For Fears, like many other groups flirting with the dark wave genre, found themselves categorized with mood-centric bands\u2014what I like to call \u201cmood minions\u201d\u2014 like Joy Division. Although Orzabal and Smith acknowledged the two groups\u2019 mutual darkness, introvertedness, and strangeness, they later expressed their uncertainty about these comparisons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Screenshot\"Screenshot<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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NME\u2019s scathing review of \u201cThe Hurting,\u201d 1983<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe thing that set us out from the crowd, I think,\u201d Orzabal told<\/span><\/a> The Quietus in 2013, \u201cwas that we were quite happy to take on slightly more semi-intellectual concepts, you know, and try and turn them into hits. We were young, weren\u2019t we? And relatively handsome! In chunky knitwear!\u201d<\/p>\n

It was that fearless intelligence that led Tears For Fears to ask the tough questions on The Hurting<\/em>\u2014questions like, \u201cWhat if we made music that aspires to silence but can\u2019t help but scream?\u201d and \u201cWhat if \u201cMad World\u201d becomes better known as a shitty piano ballad in twenty years?\u201d Yet, as evidenced by their spanking from the British music press, intelligence wasn\u2019t going to cut it. They needed to be bigger\u2014not just in scope, but in sound. Tears For Fears were never a quiet band, but in 1984, taking shelter in a village recording studio with producer Chris Hughes, storied engineer Dave Bascombe, and an army of LinnDrums, they achieved the peak of their maximalist powers.<\/p>\n

Songs From The Big Chair<\/em> is Tears For Fears\u2019 bid for cool dissatisfaction. They\u2019re as motivated as ever, but they hardly want you to know that. Just look at that cover! Disappointed men in chunky knitwear!<\/em> It\u2019s a striking image, one that perfectly sums up the blend of casual anger and snobbish confidence present on album opener \u201cShout\u201d\u2014 a militant anthem with rollicking percussion and a synth bass so chunky it evokes spoiled milk.<\/p>\n

\u201cShout, shout, let it all out \/ These are the things I can do without\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShout\u201d doesn\u2019t do without much, and its mammoth glory is the sound of a band embracing the sleekest production techniques of its time while looking forward to an apocalyptic future of its own making. Suddenly, Tears For Fears weren\u2019t just guys with keyboards but genuine proprietors of dancefloor bloodshed, and they\u2019ve made sure to blow it out to a nearly unbearable size, adding in sick guitar riffs for good measure. It’s an absolutely exhilarating achievement, but judging by its lasting popularity, you probably realized that long ago.<\/p>\n

Of course, one cannot mention the word \u201cachievement\u201d without also mentioning the biggest hit from Songs From The Big Chair<\/em>, \u201cEverybody Wants to Rule the World.\u201d This song, like \u201cShout,\u201d is one of those rare, near-perfect tracks that many would agree defines its generation\u2014and perhaps every generation. I\u2019ve heard it so many times by now that, much like the album itself, I find it difficult to articulate its magic. Is it in that shuffling drumbeat, those lush synths, or those ambiguous lyrics about war? Ultimately, it doesn\u2019t really matter. By the time you come to a conclusion, you may find yourself completely captivated, mindlessly singing that refrain over and over and over and over and over\u2026 Or maybe you\u2019ll hear it on a bank commercial and linger by the television a little longer. Hell, it\u2019s a song so well-written that it serves pubs, football arenas, and Targets across the globe equally well. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s an award reserved for a select few (I\u2019m looking at you, Kenny Loggins and Toto).<\/p>\n

Yet, it’s the album tracks (half of which were released as singles) that make Songs From The Big Chair<\/em> such a monumental achievement. Take \u201cThe Working Hour,\u201d for instance\u2014a seven-minute piece of grandiose brightness that predicts the best of late-stage Genesis but lands somewhere higher due to Orzabal\u2019s soaring vocals. Then there\u2019s \u201cMothers Talk,\u201d a go-for-broke-hunk-of-white-boy-funk that sounds so dated that it somehow circles back to awesomeness. And I couldn\u2019t possibly forget \u201cI Believe,\u201d an unexpectedly sultry jazz exercise with a subtle saxophone sound that likely gave Sting a few wet dreams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the album had a lot more depth than a lot of those other albums of that time,\u201d Curt Smith said<\/span><\/a> in 2020. \u201cAnd albums of more depth tend to stick around longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

With each subsequent listen, I find these hidden gems stick out just as much as their more popular counterparts, a sign of an album that not only possesses an enormous staying power but flows phenomenally. This flow climaxes with a three song mini-suite that begins with \u201cBroken,\u201d a muscular Girogio Moroder pastiche, and ends with \u201cListen,\u201d the album\u2019s hazy, largely instrumental closer. What\u2019s in the middle you ask?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to select a favorite track from such a remarkable project, but my pick will always be \u201cHead Over Heels.\u201d Like Talking Heads on \u201cThis Must Be the Place,\u201d \u201cHead Over Heels\u201d finds Orzabal and Smith in previously unexplored waters, talking of love, touch, and, to paraphrase George Harrison, all the good things we can have if we close our eyes. However, the group\u2019s overwhelming chilliness still manages to seep through, making the song a lasting, if not entirely euphoric, romance for the usually unromantic (see: the song\u2019s music video<\/span><\/a>, which is unsurprisingly set in a library, as well as its usage<\/span><\/a> in Donnie Darko<\/em>, which is probably your least favorite person\u2019s favorite movie). <\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to be with you alone,\u201d Orzabal sings in the song\u2019s opening verse. \u201cAnd talk about the weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

Better hit the books, Roland. It appears women aren\u2019t your strong suit.<\/em><\/p>\n

Forty years later, I find myself entranced with Songs From The Big Chair<\/em> in a way that defies any sense of lethargy. It\u2019s that sound again\u2014that unmistakable, undefinable sound\u2014a sound far slicker than any New Order album, far more foreboding than Pet Shop Boys, and far more sincere than Simple Minds (whose hit \u201cDon\u2019t You (Forget About Me)\u201d was released the same year). It\u2019s not as horned-up as INXS and it\u2019s not as sterile as OMD. It beats Wham! to death with a wooden bat and smears its guts on the wall. Could it be that Tears For Fears created a sound so innovative that we\u2019re still trying to understand it today?<\/p>\n

Yes. I really do think so. <\/p>\n

Even Tears For Fears struggled to figure it out. Their next album, 1989\u2019s solid The Seeds of Love<\/em>, ballooned past \u00a31 million in production costs but didn\u2019t feature a single as immediately captivating as anything on Songs From The Big Chair<\/em>. At this point, Elias and Stanley had left the band, and Orzabal and Smith were heading toward an oft-acrimonious creative divorce<\/span><\/a>. <\/p>\n

Perhaps it was Tears for Fears\u2019 reformation and resurgence in the twenty-first century that contributed to the lasting cultural impact of Songs From The Big Chair<\/em>. This influence can be seen in countless covers by countless artists\u2014from Weezer to Lorde, it seems every musician wants to rule the world. The album also makes frequent appearances on decade-end and all-time album lists, and every time I close my laptop, I\u2019m greeted by the \u201cShout\u201d single cover in sticker form. When two guys from Bath, now in their mid-60s, attract more monthly listeners on Spotify in 2025 than Troye Sivan, Daft Punk, and Paramore, you know they\u2019ve struck a chord. That chord is a huge one, and chances are it was played on a Fairlight synthesizer by a man with a mullet and a somber British accent.<\/p>\n

Songs From The Big Chair<\/em> is a timeless \u201880s classic, plain and simple. You probably already love it, so find the biggest speaker you can and let \u2018er rip. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll for freedom and for pleasure,\u201d Curt Smith sings in \u201cEverybody Wants to Rule the World.\u201d \u201cNothing ever lasts forever.\u201d <\/p>\n

Thankfully, good music does.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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