Tears For Fears announce first new album for 17 years

Tears For Fears
(Image credit: Frank Ockenfels)

Tears For Fears have released a video for their brand new single The Tipping Point, which you can watch in full below.

It's also the title track of the band's upcoming new album, their first since 2004's Everybody Loves A Happy Ending, which will be released through Concord Records on February 25.

The track The Tipping Point was inspired by a personal tipping point in Roland Orzabal’s own life, capturing the grief of watching someone you love lose their long-standing battle with disease.

“Before everything went so right with this album, everything first had to go wrong, it took years, but something happens when we put our heads together," says Orzabel. "We’ve got this balance, this push-me-pull-you thing – and it works really well.”

“If that balance doesn’t work on a Tears For Fears album, the whole thing just doesn’t work," adds Curt Smith. "To put it in simple terms, a Tears For Fears record and what people perceive to be the sound of Tears For Fears – is the stuff we can both agree on.” 

Joining Orzabal and Smith on The Tipping Point is their longtime collaborator Charlton Pettus along with producers and songwriters Sacha Skarbek and Florian Reutter.

“When you’ve known each other as long as we have, and have worked together as long as we have, there’s a bond there that becomes familial. So, it’s different from a friendship,” Smith says. “And it’s different from a marriage. It’s literally like that’s your brother. It’s the kind of bond that you can’t really break. It can fall apart at times. You separate for periods, which I also think is healthy, really. But in the end, we always seem to find each other again."

Earlier this month the band were honoured with the Outstanding Song Collection Award at the 2021 Ivor Novello Awards.

Tears For Fears

(Image credit: Concord Records)

Tears For Fears: The Tipping Point
1. No Small Thing
2. The Tipping Point 
3. Long, Long, Long Time
4. Break The Man
5. My Demons
6. Rivers Of Mercy
7. Please Be Happy
8. Master Plan
9. End Of Night
10. Stay

Jerry Ewing

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.