"The Hurting" by TEARS FOR FEARS - March 1983 UK Debut Album on Mercury Records [April 1983 USA] featuring Roland Orzabal, Curt Smith, Manny Elias and Ian Stanley with Guests Chris Hughes, Ross Cullum, Mel Collins and Phil Palmer with Producer Chris Hughes (June 1999 UK Mercury UK CD Reissue Digitally Remastered with Four Bonus Tracks - Jon Astley Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...Intrusion In My Illusion..." 

This early March 1983 debut album takes me back, and how. I can remember standing in a Dublin chart shop hustling to hear what was new and this excited 20-something hipster (so 80ts hair day) queued up Track 3 on Side 1. He plopped the startlingly honest and uncluttered album artwork in front of me like it was important but he didn't know how. It had some mopey Muppet on the cover with his hands up to his traumatized eight-year-old mush. The song was the hugely sophisticated "Pale Shelter" by Tears For Fears and the March 1983 LP was "The Hurting". I was quietly taken aback. Then he flipped Sides and I heard the manic but sensationally good "Change" and I was done for. 

For certain - England's TFF sounded like Depeche Mode, New Order, The Thompson Twins or The Human League and all those in-yer-face bands grasping technology and going forward with the Synth revolution. But while all of them would cut out their own mazes and paths of glory, there was (dare we tread on dangerous ground here) - just something that bit more brilliant about Tears For Years that engendered cult feelings at the time and lifelong allegiance ever since.

 

I remember too that I was so on a Peter Gabriel 3 (1980) and Peter Gabriel 4 (1982) tip in those years - the weirder it was - the better - challenge my ears and my brain why don't you nutty Brits. I loved Talk Talk too for those reasons, the genre-bending Talking Heads out of America with their Rock-meets-Funk jerkathon tunes. 

 

But there was just something about Bath's Tear For Fears and its troubled duo that made you feel there's someit-special going on here my dear - magic that would only get better as the years went on. And when you think about the huge leaps made with March 1985's "Songs From The Big Chair" and especially the hypnotic opus that is "The Seeds Of Love" from September 1989 - our gut instincts back in the day proved right. Besides, any band who penned a tune called "Ideas As Opiates" gets my vote.

Which brings us to this beautifully transferred CD Remaster of "The Hurting" tastefully bolstered up with Four period-relevant Bonuses. Let's get to the mad world and those intrusions in all our illusions...

 

UK released 28 June 1999 - "The Hurting" by TEARS FOR FEARS on Mercury 558 104-2 (Barcode 73145810424) is an Expanded Edition Digitally Remastered CD Reissue with Four Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (66:20 minutes):

 

1. The Hurting [Side 1]

2. Mad World 

3. Pale Shelter

4. Ideas As Opiates

5. Memories Fade 

6. Suffer The Children [Side 2]

7. Watch Me Bleed 

8. Change 

9. The Prisoner 

10. Start Of The Breakdown 

Tracks 1 to 10 are their debut album "The Hurting" - released March 1983 in the UK on Mercury MERS 17 and April 1984 in the USA on Mercury 422 811 039-1. Produced by CHRIS HUGHES - it peaked at No.1 in the UK and No. 73 in the USA on the LP charts. 

 

BONUS TRACKS: 

11. Pale Shelter (Long Version, 7:09 minutes) 

12. The Way You Are (Extended, 7:44 minutes)

13. Mad World (World Remix, 3:43 minutes)

14. Change (Extended Version, 6:00 minutes)

 

The 12-page booklet contains 1999 interviews with both boys about the beginnings of the band - how they were essentially a duo of songwriters with other musicians satelliting around them. IAN CRANNA - who did a press blurb on TFF back in 1982 Smash Hits days - provides great liner notes that are smart enough to get out of the way and allow Curt and Roland tell it like it was. The lyrics are here too, original LP credits and the fact that original Producer CHRIS HUGHES has done the incredible Remaster with Audio Engineer (and part-time Pop Star himself) JON ASTLEY at his Close To The Edge Studios. Astley has handled huge amounts of The Who catalogue, Level 42 and Wishbone Ash and if you know any of those clean and your living-room Remasters, then you will know what to expect here. The Audio is fantastic - hiss-less but still alive - even the Bonuses kick ass. To the tunes...  

The first thing that wallops you is the SOUND - it's huge and clean as a whistle. The punch off the synths, guitar and drum whacks. Also I'd forgotten how good the subtle underplay of pain is in "The Hurting" - that child-in-pain image even more haunting in 2022 (and dig that break at about two minutes in - brilliant). Mercury had slipped out "Mad World" in September 1982 (months before the LP) after "Suffer The Children" and the original "Pale Shelter" had failed to chart in November 1981 and May 1982 respectively. The remaster for "Mad World" is fantastic - those chimes, drums and tambourine as it fades out and segues into the sublime "Pale Shelter" - such a winner.   

Roland says TFF took "Ideas For Opiates" from the thoughts of psychotherapist Arthur Janov - a chapter in one his books - Mel Collins blasting away on Saxophone to the bare drone backdrop. "With hungry joy, I'll be your toy...memories fade but the scars still linger..." Roland sings with real sincerity in the deeper-than-deep hurt of  "Memories Fade" - surely one of the debut's highlights (the Remaster is fantastic). Their debut 45-single in late 1981, "Suffer The Children" is personal chains dressed up in Pop Bop - an only child in an only room able to get out through a song. But again you're hit with the LP's other forgotten nugget "Watch Me Bleed" - all the deeds of yesterday paving the way (love that guitar and those big chunky chorus moments). Although I don't personally like "The Prisoner" - the ridiculously cool bop of "Change" is absolute genius and a perennial oldies radio fave to this day. And on it goes... 

 

I had completely forgotten about those Extended Versions and Remixes - especially at a time when those things tried your patience way more than they tickled your fancy. At least three of them  - "Pale Shelter", "Mad World" and of course the stunning "Change" are brilliant and in my opinion, the Long Version of "Pale Shelter" is actually better than the LP (I'm sure it's the re-recorded version).  

Currently languishing in a digital dosshouse near you for only one of her Majesty's skydiver banknotes - "The Hurting" is one of those fab LPs you've forgotten about. And here it's reissued on a CD Remaster that sports both kick-ass audio excellence and decent annotation for less than a Movie Voucher. Vistas and joy...I like it...

Two Other Titles in this UK 28 June 1999

TEARS FOR FEARS Digitally Remasters CD Series 

Each with Four Bonus Tracks and Expanded Booklets 

 

1. "Songs From The Big Chair (Mercury 558 106-2 - Barcode 731455810622)

2. "The Seeds Of Love" (Mercury 558 105-2 - Barcode 731455810523)