Tears For Fears - Elemental
A review of sorts
Tears For Fears were my first musical love. They were THE band of my formative years. I was 13 years old when The Hurting came out (Madworld captured me upon release) and 15 when Songs from the Big Chair was released (Everybody Wants to Rule the World is still my favourite song). I had to wait a long four years before the next album, The Seeds of Love (a masterpiece) arrived in 1989.
So, they were my 80s band. Their singles were fantastic; Madworld, Pale Shelter, Change, Shout, Head over Heels, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, and more, but they weren’t just a singles band. The albums had weight, there was very little filler, and they had that Arthur Janov primal-therapy concept too. Those first three albums have accompanied me throughout my life in the 40 plus years since.
Three fantastic albums.
And then they broke up. Fell out. Parted ways.
I was gutted. I thought that was it. No more Tears For Fears.
Roland was my favourite. He was the main songwriter, and I thought he had a great voice too. It transpired that he would continue writing and recording under the Tears For Fears name.
I was excited, but I’d also moved on a little bit, broadening my musical horizons. Time had passed. Four years since The Seeds of Love. It wasn’t the 80s anymore.
Roland’s, sorry, Tears For Fears’ new album landed in 1993, entitled Elemental. It was preceded by the comeback single Break it Down Again.
I liked the single. It did pretty well if I recall. It was different. It had a different sound palette, and of course it was missing those familiar Curt vocals, either main or backing.
Roland had often spoken about the idea that to create, you had to destroy; sometimes you needed to break something down and start again. I believe they scrapped a whole album’s worth of material during the lengthy, and costly (£1m) Seeds of Love recordings. Break it Down Again was about that idea.
I bought the single and then the album. I was still a massive fan but I was also listening to a lot of other music. A lot. So I probably didn’t give it as much attention as it deserved among the crowd of other CDs clamouring for that spot in my CD player.
I honestly don’t recall how I felt about it back then. I’m sure I thought it was good, I’m sure I did. But now, as I write this, in 2026, 33 years after its release, listening to it over again, and again, I think it’s bloody genius!
It’s a proper album. There were only two singles released in the UK, Break it Down Again, and Cold. Roland was effectively free to do whatever he wanted. He recorded most of the album in his home studio, Neptune’s Kitchen, with Tim Palmer and Alan Griffiths, using a much more lo-fi approach. That’s not to say it isn’t brilliantly produced and lushly layered (I think it is), but it uses a less poppy sound in my opinion, and as I say, it seems like more of an album as a work of art than an effort to regain and continue that 80s success by writing hit singles, or making The Seeds of Love part 2. Going alone meant he had to plough his own furrow now. I’m sure the record company were probably thinking, and wringing their hands, over another 4 hit singles.
For me, it’s like a Bowie album. It’s mature. It’s creative. It’s got great album tracks that could never be singles, but they’re immensely enjoyable nonetheless, and that all adds up to make a truly great album.
There’s really not a duff track on this album and Roland is in fine voice throughout.
Elemental is a fantastic introduction to the album. Great bass line. Excellent vocals. Sets the tone for the record better than the single did.
Did you lose your faith in God? Does your conscience always get you down?
Cold, the brilliant second single has a nice slide guitar motif and is based lyrically on a real life event when a photographer, who didn’t get the photos she’d have liked when Roland decided he wasn’t in the mood, slipped a note under his hotel room door which said “how can someone who makes such beautiful, warm music be so cold?”.
Then comes Break it Down Again. A good track, understandably chosen for the first single, but probably my least favourite actually.
Then we get into a great album track, Mr. Pessimist. I love this track. So much going on. It really builds to a cracking second half.
Time will swallow
Your precious time
Like magic create the future
Dog’s a Best Friend’s Dog comes next. No, I don’t know what it means either, but it’s great fun. Go, go, go, go….chew, chew, chew, chew indeed.
Fish Out of Water follows. Roland’s rather brutal diatribe on Curt ala John Lennon’s How do you Sleep? Despite the scathing lyrics it is a really good track. Some really nice sounds. A penny for Curt’s thoughts on this song.
You’re dreaming your life away
Fish out of water
Go swim in the tide today
Fish out of water
Gas Giants is quite a sparse track, similar to a lot of the early Tears For Fears b-sides. Mostly instrumental, it’s a treat for the ears.
Power is one of my favourite tracks on the album. I guess it could’ve been a single. It has good lyrics, beautifully layered production, a really cool middle 8, great vocals and epic drums on the outro. It’s like nothing Tears For Fears had done before.
Last year’s rivals share their blood
Sailor sworn to secrecy
Ride the waves and stem the flood
The tides of endless enmity
Speaking of which, Power segues brilliantly into Brian Wilson Said, absolutely like nothing they’d done before! This track just blows my mind. Obviously taking inspiration from the titular Beach Boys genius but it also offers something more. Something I don’t think we could possibly have expected or predicted from Roland. It’s truly fantastic. Genius I say!
My life, nothing was easy ‘til now
Finally we have Goodnight Song. This was a single in some regions; North America, Canada, and parts of Europe. This a pretty straight up MOR song but it has some excellent guitar work and Roland sings it beautifully. It’s a really nice track.
I should have stayed ‘round to break the ice
I thought about it once or twice
But nothing ever changes
Unless there’s some pain
And then we fade out on a quite brilliant album, one that I maybe didn’t fully appreciate at the time as much as I do now. That’s the way it is with some albums though. At least for me.
If you haven’t heard it, I hope this makes you want to listen to it. You absolutely should!
A 10/10 album for me, in a completely different way that, say, Songs from the Big Chair is a 10/10 album, if that make sense?
It’s all subjective of course…. These days it’s all in the mind; it’s Elemental.