New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The iconic British duo,
Tears For Fears, have released "No Small Thing", the second single off their highly-anticipated first studio album in 17 years, THE TIPPING POINT, arriving February 25, 2022 via Concord Records/Universal Music. Written by both band members - Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith - the guitar strums pull you in with their folk-like tone, but slowly morph into controlled chaos, as Roland and Curt push the song's sonics as far as they can go.
"In early 2020, Curt and I sat down together with just a couple of acoustic guitars. The first time in decades. We needed a meeting of minds, a coming together psychically. We were literally going back to the drawing board looking for some depth, heart and soul with which to complete our album. Curt came up with this simple folk/country riff, a little bit Dylan, a little bit Johnny Cash, and then we were off. It was the complete opposite of what we had been trying to do for many years - searching for the elusive, modern hit single. We felt suddenly unencumbered, free if you like, no longer worrying about the market, about success, but drawing on influences from our childhoods. It was at this point that the whole album started opening up. 'No Small Thing' was the key, the thing that turned a red light green," Roland said.
"No Small Thing feels like it could have been a song from a seventies or sixties acoustic folk album with how the track starts. The fact that we felt confident enough to go from there to the end of the song to where it's just absolute mayhem speaks to that sense of freedom, and that's our comfort zone musically," Curt added.
Inspired by Koyaanisqatsi, the "No Small Thing" music video was made using solely found footage showing the conflict between individual freedoms and collective responsibility. Watch it here.
In November, the band also announced THE TIPPING POINT WORLD TOUR, with support from
Garbage on the U.S. leg. Kicking off in Cincinnati, OH on May 20th, these dates will see the band performing in over 20 cities across North
America before capping off with their last show in Wantagh, NY on June 25th. These dates will mark the band's first U.S. tour since 2017. See below for a full list of dates, and for tickets and more information, visit the band's website.
TEARS FOR FEARS - 2022 US TOUR DATES
May 20 - Riverbend
Music Center - Cincinnati, OH
May 21 - Blossom
Music Center - Cleveland, OH
May 24 - The Pavilion at Toyota
Music Factory - Dallas, TX
May 27 - Ak-Chin Pavilion - Phoenix, AZ
May 29 - Levitt Pavilion - Denver, CO
June 1 - Concord Pavilion - Concord, CA
June 2 - Shoreline Amphitheatre - Mountain View, CA
June 4 - The Forum - Los Angeles, CA
June 5 - North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre - San Diego, CA
June 9 - iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre - West Palm Beach, FL
June 10 - MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheater - Tampa, FL
June 12 - Ameris Bank Amphitheatre - Atlanta, GA
June 13 - PNC
Music Pavilion - Charlotte, NC
June 15 - DTE
Energy Music Theatre - Detroit, MI
June 16 - Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre - Chicago, IL
June 17 - Ruoff
Music Center - Indianapolis, IN
June 19 - Merriweather Post Pavilion - Columbia, MD
June 21 - TD Pavilion at The Mann - Philadelphia, PA
June 22 - Leader Bank Pavilion - Boston, MA
June 24 - P.N.C. Bank Arts Center - Holmdel, NJ
June 25 - Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater - Wantagh, NY
Tears For Fears - Roland Orzabal (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Curt Smith (vocals, bass, keyboards) - formed in Bath, England in 1981. With 30 million albums sold worldwide, performing to countless sold-out audiences, and winning various awards, the band represent an inimitable intersection of pop palatability, clever and cognizant lyricism, guitar bombast, and new wave innovation. Their 1983 debut, The Hurting, yielded anthems such as Mad World, Change, and Pale Shelter, reaching RIAA Gold status in the United States. 1985's Songs from the Big Chair became a watershed moment for the group and music at large. Boasting the signature BRIT Award-winning, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Shout, Head over Heels, Mothers Talkand I Believe (A Soulful Re-Recording), it went quintuple-platinum and captured #1 on the Billboard Top 200. Slant dubbed it one of The Best Albums of the 1980s, it was featured in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and Consequence of Sound awarded it a rare A+ rating in a 20-year retrospective.1989's Seeds of Love proved to be Orzabal and Smith's last collaboration together until Everybody Loves A Happy Ending in 2004, which rekindled the creative fire between them. The band engaged in a three-year touring whirlwind across North America, Japan, South Korea, Manila, and South
America beginning in 2010. 2013 saw them return with their first recorded music in a decade: a cover of Arcade Fire's Ready to Start. The band returned once more in 2017 with the Rule The World best-of collection which once more catapulted the band back to the upper echelon of the UK album charts. The duo's DNA remains embedded within three generations of artists on both subtle and overt levels. Quietly casting a shadow over rock, hip-hop, electronic dance music, indie, and beyond,
Kanye West interpolated Memories Fade on The Coldest Winter from the seminal 808s & Heartbreak, The
Weeknd infused Pale Shelter into Starboy's Secrets,
David Guetta sampled Change for Always, and
Drake utilized Ideas as Opiates as the foundation for Lust For Life, while Ally Brooke Hernandez, Adam Lambert, and
Gary Jules recorded popular covers of Mad World and
Disturbed took on Shout, and that's only to name a few.
Lorde cut a haunting cover of Everybody Wants To Rule The World for the soundtrack of the blockbuster, The Hunger Games - Catching Fire, which
Tears For Fears gleefully would use as intro music live and thus bring everything full circle.
Meanwhile, classic songs figure prominently everywhere from The Wire and Donnie Darko to Straight Outta Compton and Mr. Robot. Long before they became a cultural cornerstone,
Tears For Fears simply consisted of two school friends growing up in Bath, Somerset UK.
With The Tipping Point and comprehensive touring plans on the horizon Orzabal and Smith remain as loud as ever, while yet another generation gets ready to "
Shout" with them all over again.
