Major developments on TFF world. Roland just did an interview for Virgin Radio which at long last sheds a new light on the new album, now 7 years in the making. The story is that, at some point, they actually had an album finished, aided by some of the "top hit producers" in the world (probably the cover art that was doing the rounds on last year's tour signals how close they were to releasing this album). However, when Curt and Roland listened to the final version of this album, they didn't think it was very good, nor very Tears For Fears, and thus decided to shelve it and go back to the drawing board. The new album from "The Tipping Point" sessions retains "4 or 5" of the original album and features 5 brand new songs (probably written after Roland's wife passing), which the boys are very excited about. They're now looking to complete it by the end of this year. Here's the complete interview and below a transcription (by me) of the important parts regarding the new album: Virgin Radio Classic Artist: Tears for Fears We did a few songs which were kind of very strange. Our management at the time thought that we wouldn't get a current / modern album, whatever that means, so the process of speed dating with modern successful pop songwriters began. Rightly or wrongly, probably wrongly. So we would go with an open mind to these songwriters studios and 9 times out of 10, they would have pre-programmed a version of "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" or "Head Over Heels". Meanwhile, me and Curt were listening to this incomplete album and we're going 'It's not very good'. We're trying too hard to sound like other people and we don't want to do that. We don't want to try to get a hit single. We wanna make something that moves us. We wanna make something that's gonna be great to play live. So we're now back in the studio. I'm gonna say 4 or 5 tracks of the original album will remain, and they are cracking tunes. But we're now working on 5 new songs which have got so much more heart and sound so much more like Tears For Fears. So fingers crossed, it's going very very well at the moment (although I've said that a million times in the past), and we'll get it done by the end of this year.
If true, then maybe they were paying attention to recent U2 and Duran Duran efforts at chasing a hit with modern producers. and now we can also look forward to a future boxset called The Tipping Point sessions with all the jettisoned material...
And now I'm thinking, here I was berating the band for not releasing the bloody album after 7 years in the making, and it turns out that it was all for the best. U2's last album is the archetypal example of what not to do, trying to mould your sound to the current standards. I'm so glad that Roland and Curt had an epiphany and shelved that plastic TFF album. I'm very much looking forward to hear those tunes as B-Sides and, in a few years, on the second disc of 'The Tipping Point' Super Deluxe Edition But most importantly, after years of disillusionment with the band, now I'm happy and pumped to hear 'The Tipping Point'!
I’m hoping with the momentum of The Seeds box we get new album in the spring. But it will probably depend on the pandemic and tour situation.
Thanks for that news (and for transcribing!), it's very interesting. 7 years and counting, this is making it look like they banged out The Seeds Of Love over a long weekend! I wonder if "I Love You But I'm Lost" fits into the group of songs that they didn't really like that was mostly pre-readied for them by producers. Didn't that one have a large list of credits? However, I DO like that song. Yes, it sounds a bit on the modern side, but I dig it and its sentiment.
The thing that seems odd to me is that they agreed to "speed dating hit producers" in the first place.
Reading between the lines, I think Curt was probably most unhappy about the direction of the record. His main motivation for the album was to have more songs to play live. An electro sounding record isn't ideal for a bass player. I love "I love you but i'm lost" but to me it's really Bastille with Roland on vocals. It's the sort of song that would sound great on stations which play chart music but really doesn't add anything to Tears For Fears legacy. People have mixed view of Happy Ending but if they write a song as good as Secret World, I will be happy.
I read somewhere that Seeds took 4 years to complete and blew out the budget. Given their age, travel and personal kerfuffle, 7 years is looking good in my book
While it seems like it might happen, I would take it with a grain of salt. They've always taken their time, restarted, etc. And as they've gotten older, they've taken longer and longer. If they had to start over that's a pretty bad sign right there, and maybe they can fix it, without making it worse. I didn't like the 2 new songs from the greatest hits. So they have a long way to go before coming back. I'm not sure what they think their sound is, because it's gone all over the place in the last few decades. We're in for a long wait, much like the people that waited for the 'seeds of love' boxset. later -1
Why do "legacy" acts bother doing anything but exactly what they want? They have absolutely no chance at having a mainstream hit.
Because they want to make songs that aren't the 2 token bathroom/beer run songs in a setlist? Something like David Byrne's last one found an audience of it's own. Iggy Pop Post Punk Depression being another.
Most of the people that go to the big arena gigs are there for the 80s hits. It's only on the extremely off-chance of a late hit single like Cher's "Believe" or U2 "Beautiful Day" that the new tracks, as good as they might be, will not be beer run songs. But who cares anyway? The beer run songs of the last tour were "Badman Song" (the highlight of the entire show!) and "Suffer The Children" - the first single of the band. If we get an album that is remotely as good as "Happy Ending", I'll be a very happy man.
Haha, no! I've preordered the Seeds box, about time, eh! And Paul's comment that they are working on the new album gave me hope although I, like many, was confused because it did seem like they already had an album finished (of which "I Love You But I'm Lost" and "Stay" were taken from) and now they were writing again. This interview clears that all up. This 100x. I've said this before, whenever people wondered why they didn't play the song live - it's just not a live number, and I also said that it didn't exactly get my hopes up with regards to new material that sounds good on stage. I know I'm also speaking from my personal viewpoint as somebody whose two top TFF albums are "The Seeds of Love" and "Raoul and the Kings of Spain" - both albums with a strong instrumental base. Most of all, I think TFF are a band whose best work is timeless and rooted in a tradition that goes further back than New Wave / electro-pop, basically back to the times of The Beatles, ELO and the likes. If they now start chasing the latest fad, their new music will not be looked at favourably in a few years' time. I've jabbed at Curt on twitter about this a couple of times. I don't know if he acknowledged it but I'm not the only one and I know both Roland and Curt recently identified as "audiophiles". I think this was when Steven Wilson started doing his 5.1 mixes. As you may or may not know, Steven has become an adamant critic of the loudness wars and doesn't allow anybody to master his mixes. I've also managed to get interesting statements out of Tim Palmer, who's still their main mixing guy and explicitly stated unhappiness over how "I Love You..." was mastered and says he wouldn't have approved that. I hope he can also put his foot down and say that the music needs to maintain the dynamics that are still in his mixes. Maybe this has actually already happened... one song at a time, mastered like that, may sound exciting, but when you listen to the whole thing in one go you start to realize how fatiguing the listening experience is. Fingers are crossed. I actually don't mind what I heard from that U2 album, I think "You're the Best Thing about Me" and a few others were pretty good. But I'm not a big U2 fan in any case so I'm the wrong one to judge. I know eclipsed (who rated No Line on the Horizon very highly) came down hard on the album. However, U2 (unlike Duran Duran) did manage to get attention. Okay, they're U2, but still. I wonder if there is anything TFF can do to raise their profile. It worked for Marillion (coming back into chart territory after a lot of obscurity), but they have been much more prolific. But I think the best TFF can do is play to their own strengths.