Tears For Fears’ Songs For A Nervous Planet combines live tracks with four powerful new songs

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When Tears For Fears returned after a long absence with those of 2022 The tipping pointthey reiterated their ability to think big without exaggerating. The album reveled in massive production, epic songs, and abundant emotion, all while pulling off the duo’s age-old trick of making music with colossal ambition easily digestible. Pop music, but in its highest form.

Now re-energized – despite an increase in gray hairs – Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith release a live album with four previously unreleased tracks. Such mix-and-match projects can seem a bit ungainly, as if the new songs are meant only to tempt hesitant voters. Yet such is the sumptuousness of these four shots that everything comes together with grace.

The concert recordings (from Franklin, Tennessee) themselves blend classics from different careers and more recent favorites with an awareness of rhythm and momentum. And the excitement: The thing about Tears For Fears is that, while rightly lauded for their talent in the studio, when they take to the stage, they know how to let it rip.

All that composure and poise they exude in the studio goes out the window, in a good way, once they shed their dander. They don’t go into Shout without letting it all out, and when they sow the seeds of love, they rely on every cheap thrill this number has – and it has more than most entire albums in the band.

The harmonies become eerie Take That-style, but there’s a prog-friendly surprise at every transition

They are so dynamic live that when the big shift power chord is engaged Chained woman gets here, it’s a surprise that they’re underselling it, relatively. At one point, Orzabal becomes so animated that he detours into a Wings chorus. Let them in. The bells are ringing. Marry conifers like Pale Shelter and younger songs like My demonsthis live is a treat.

Say goodbye to mom and dad opens the unveiling of the new issues. After a whistling chorus that evokes MGMT, it settles into a recognizable TFF tempo, suggests Orzabal’society has gone crazy‘, thus reassuring us that its recurring lyrical themes remain relevant today. He suffers from the past while embracing the sounds of the present.

The girl I call home carries synth and drum movements that would not have been incongruous on The injuredthen slides into a sweet and sophisticated love anthem. The harmonies become ominous Take That-style, but there’s a prog-friendly – ​​and even dubby – surprise at every transition.

Emilie said turn on the faucet of this band produced by the Beatles by Brian-Wilson (that’s never a bad thing) while the beautiful Astronaut is a remarkable moment, charged with desire while rhyming with audacity ‘astronaut‘ with ‘a missile purchased by Castro.’ Tears For Fears rules the world.

• Songs for a Nervous Planet East on sale now via Concorde.