Tears For Fears are headed towards their third UK No. 1 and first in 33 years with ‘The Tipping Point.
According to data from the Official Charts Company, the group’s first LP in 18 years is on track to top the charts this week, leading four new entries in the Top 5 this week.
In second place is West London rapper Central Cee with his second mixtape ‘23’, one spot ahead of Avril Lavigne at three with ‘Love Sux’. It marks her sixth UK Top 10 album and her highest-charting record in the UK since 2007’s ‘The Best Damn Thing’.
Also set for a Top 5 debut is former The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, whose ‘Fever Dreams Pts 1-4’ is at four, with Ed Sheeran’s ‘=’ falling to five.
Speaking to the launch issue of Retro Pop, the duo open up on the creative process behind the record, which they admit was a tough experience.
Curt explains: “We got to the point a few years ago where I certainly wasn’t happy with what we were doing.
“Myself and Roland sat down and I said, ‘Look, if this is what you want to do, then you go ahead and do it, but it’s not for me.’
“That ended and we didn’t know what we were going to do. It was sort of up in the air.”
According to Roland, the band was being “pushed in various directions – not only by our past management but also a record company we were signed to,” which led to discontentment between the pair.
Initially, they set the project to one side and focussed solely on live work, but it was a tragedy that reignited their creative flair and pushed the pair back into the studio, when Roland’s wife Caroline passed away.
That poignant moment reunited the pair and compelled them to reconvene and reassess their direction, with a view to pushing forward with a body of work that was mutually fulfilling.
“Roland said, ‘Look, let’s sit down and talk about this. What do you feel?’ And I said, ‘I think we have some good songs. But I just think that the recordings really aren’t right. They don’t sound like Tears for Fears – they sound like us trying to be someone else’,” Curt remembers.
“I think he’d come to the same realisation, having taken time away from it… So we sat down and plotted a path forward of how we could finish an album that we were both happy with.”
‘The Tipping Point’ is available on CD, Deluxe CD and vinyl. A Super Deluxe Edition CD is also available, along with signed CDs.
Read our full interview with Tears For Fears in the Retro Pop 2022 Preview Special, out now. Get yours here: Retro Pop Store.
READ MORE: Tears For Fears: ‘New album ‘The Tipping Point’ almost pushed us over the edge’
