Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
They say everybody loves a happy ending, the chance to feel the warmth of humanity as a couple drives off into the sunset and all that witnessed the relationship go through its ups and downs to reach a point where the story ends; the freezing of a moment captured forever on celluloid, the last line of a saga in the written word, the final upbeat note framed forever as the song fades…and yet what seems to fade can come roaring back, a fashion of expression returns, a revival of a play not performed for thirty years, a major name in music returning after an almost twenty year studio album break…not everything fades to emptiness, and for the fans of Tears For Fears, not everything is perhaps as it may have seemed.
The Tipping Point marks the stunning return for Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith, and where once might have faded in the minds of music fans, is like a star being discovered in the midst of being reborn, a reverberation of seismic proportions, a dance of enlightenment that is gratefully observed; for in this one act of return, the star blazes, the music is universal, and the emotion is one of resumption…a point of fact that whilst the pair had not been in the studio together for some time, the energy has kept its balance, and this brand new album is hopefully just the start of a new era from the minds of Tears For Fears.
Through tracks such as the album opener No Small Thing, Break The Man, My Demons, Please Be Happy, End Of Night, and the finale of Stay, there is more to be found than the anger and volume that came with songs such as Shout, Mad World, and Sowing The Seeds Of Love in the band’s formative years. What is presented to the listener now is one of reflection, one of renewal, an album of explosive peace.
The Tipping Point is the epitome of refusing to believe that all things must end, that if the passion remains, if the minds and hearts can meet in such a way that old pressures and antagonisms can become the signals for new beliefs to take hold, and when the tipping point is embraced in such a way, it can be one of good and the necessary thought of entropy is dismissed.
Such a return can only be valued and cheered, Tears For Fears have once more placed their emotions and sensations in the hands of the followers, and it is one to rejoice.
Ian D. Hall