#381: Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair (1985)

Zack: We, as a society, need to come together and come up with some real, substantive regulation over the playlists in all retail locations. I get that they are private businesses and that this may seem like too much, but I think I actually recoiled in actual horror on the train when Everybody Wants to Rule the World came on this album. I heard that song twice a day, 4-5 days a week, for almost 2 years while I worked in the hell-on-Earth that is Modell’s Sporting Goods. I’m sure that normal people would hear that song and think that it is an acceptable new wave song. I hear it and start shrieking “Kill it! Kill it with fire!” And I haven’t even worked there in more than 2 years. In a world with Pandora, Spotify, and a million other music services, there is just no reason for retail stores to be playing the same shitty CD with the same shitty songs on repeats for eternity. Moving on from that #calltoaction, Tears for Fears have a pretty good band name and the same exact sound that almost every other new wave band we’ve listened to has had. Seriously, were the funky haircuts of the 80s just a means of telling bands apart, like a more vertical color coding system? Songs from the Big Chair is an album we’ve already heard a dozen or so times, and I’m honestly too sick of it to even bother complaining anymore.

Favorite Tracks: I Believe; The Working Hour; Head Over Hells/Broken [Live]

Emily: You're not going to get a band like Tears for Fears today. Their particular combination of bombastic synths, feathery mullets, and sung-spoken vocals on Songs from the Big Chair comes distinctly out of 1985. It would maybe work as a nostalgia act today, but not as much else. I don't even think Tears for Fears today (yep, they're still together and making new music) would try to capture the Tears for Fears of 1985. I suppose this is true of most new wave, actually. But Songs from the Big Chair is one of the more interesting albums of the genre and era, mixing up the tempo and pop/rock vibes from track to track. Trying to capture that distinct musical moment in time today would seem a little silly, synths and all - though I totally support bringing the sweaters from the album cover back.

Favorite Tracks: Shout; Everybody Wants to Rule the World; Broken