Tears For Fears are “so proud” of their new album ‘Tipping Point’.
The 80s pop duo – which consists of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, both 60 – think their new release – which came out on Friday (25.02.22) – is “an album of now”.
After 17 years since they released a new album, Curt told the Sun: “The Tipping Point’ is an album of now. There are some very contemplative songs, some sadder subjects, but it still leaves you with a sense of optimism.
“It’s is the ultimate Tears For Fears album and we are both so, so proud of it.”
Roland admitted that the “task” was to make a record that was “representative” of the group – who formed in 1981.
He said: “The task was how to make an album representative of us, at 60.”
Roland added: “How can we bring our life experience good and bad to the table and make something that speaks to people. Our best work, and the work that’s lasted over the years is the stuff that resonates with people.”
Roland was prompted to begin work on the album – and reunite with Curt – back in 2017 following the death of his first wife Caroline, who passed away after dealing with alcohol abuse-induced dementia for five years after 35 years of marriage.
Roland said: “There are so many areas of mental health we just don’t understand.
“If someone suddenly changes personality, if they suddenly go from extrovert to being withdrawn, it’s hard to understand.
“Caroline lost her parents when they were young and I think she never fully processed that.
The ‘Everybody Wants to Run The World’ hitmakers compared their dynamic to that of “a marriage”, with Curt remarking it was “hard” to watch him grieve, prompting work on the album to be paused in 2018.
Curt – who is married to Frances Pennington, the mother of his two daughters, Diva, 13, and Wilder, 10 – said: “It’s hard to watch anyone you’ve grown up with go through that pain but the only thing I could do was walk away from it. It wasn’t helping us being together.
“Roland and I are like a marriage and like any marriage, we tend to blame each other when things go wrong. We got to a point in 2019 on tour when we really weren’t talking to each other.”
However, later that year – without any help from a manager or any other third party – the pair reunited to get back to work.
After getting married to his second wife, Emily Rath, a photographer, Roland said: “It took me the best part of that year to get myself together again.”
He added: “I was keen to push forward. There were about five tracks we started to work on, and I needed to reconnect with Curt. It wasn’t very difficult at all.
“When we say we fall out it just means we aren’t communicating, so when we do, it’s easy.”