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Roland Orzabal was born in England, but his name and appearance (jet black hair, full lips… ) suggest that his family is cosmopolitan: his full name is Roland Jaime Orzabal de la Quintana, with a French father, an English mother, and Argentine and Basque grandparents, creating a wonderful mix of blood that brings intriguing dimensions to his talent as a pop composer and performer.
With this album, we find ourselves in 1995, the eighties and the intoxication of great success are now distant, and his adventure companion in Tears For Fears, Curt Smith, has long been separated with the usual bitter aftermath (though they reunited a few years ago), who, in any case, had a far lesser role than Roland in the band's dynamics. Roland is now a father to a child he chose to name Raoul, perhaps because he saw in him a gaucho-like face, much like his own.
Spain, the kingdom, cities delicately baroque and immensely charming, the European warmth in the melodies and the acoustic guitars, lyrics full of introspection and melancholy, those sensations that capture you when you are no longer young but certainly not old, having made many choices, suffered many setbacks and strokes of fortune...all of this poured into a twilight and mature album that inevitably sells far less than its predecessors. The usual lightness and grandeur are missing, electronics are reduced to a minimum, and guitars dominate, sometimes quite toughly, but especially there's no Beatles-esque aftertaste in the melodies and harmonies this time.
Precisely for this reason, it is my favorite work from Tears. Orzabal's powerful and thick voice is there in its place, more resonant than ever, dominating the arrangements that are once again of supreme class, a true school for many producers (Tears' CDs are indispensable in any production studio for drawing sound and rhythm ideas). Because the songs are beautiful and poignant even if the Spanish theme is not treated very organically, it is more a beguiling outfit, a nod to the "continent" and the Latin essence flowing within him.
The images on the cover and in the booklet are stereotypical but still very impactful: the classic Pamplona, with the running of the bulls and people clinging to streetlights to avoid being gored, but also wonderful arcades and historical hallways where the good Roland is photographed with his guitar, celebrating an important part of himself.
Pop is a truly vast genre, flooded with solemn garbage and commercial maneuvers devoid of any artistic flair, but there are also brilliant exceptions, and Tears For Fears are a reliable assurance in this category.
Fascinating album.Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
07 Sorry (04:48)
What's the matter with your life
Did someone come and shoot your with wife
Just as you planned
Will you live or will you die
Are you that butterfly
That never lands
Set aside these vacant rules
Break them now and don't get fooled again
Sorry
How many times must I say
Life is not a cake to seperate
What do I have to do
To save you from worry
Cut off my nose
To spite my face
When you look into these eyes
Do you see civilised
Or son of Sam
Will you love or do you hate
Why do you hestitate yeah
Sorry
How many times must I say
Life is not a cake to seperate
What do I have to do
To save you from worry
Cut off my nose
To spite my face
Time is an arrow
You are the bow
Shoot it now to seal your own fate
Get a life, get a love, get a new big idea
What's the matter with your life
Did someone come and shoot your with wife
Just as you planned
Will you live or will you die
Are you that butterfly
Sorry
How many times must I say
Life is not a cake to seperate
What do I have to do
To save you from worry
Cut off my nose
To spite my face
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