The Tipping Point
| Tears For Fears
The Tipping Point
The Tipping Point is the seventh studio album by the English pop rock band Tears for Fears, released on 25 February 2022 through Concord Records. It is the band's first studio album since Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, released almost 18 years prior. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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The Prog Report
Everything about this album, from the production to the variety of material, works amazingly well. There is not a bad song or wasteful moment of filler on it. The collection offers a cathartic, emotional and hopeful view of these current times, conveyed in a way only these two, weathered and experienced artists working together, could provide. It is a brilliant album that deserves its place among the best albums of the year. Tears for Fears have proven that no matter how long it takes, it is worth getting it right, and with The Tipping Point, they absolutely have.
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The Guardian
The veteran pop duo process difficult times on this beautifully crafted, if not quite catchy, new album.
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Pitchfork
The legendary pop duo’s first new album in 18 years approaches the challenges of middle life with familiar sensitivity and shared intimacy. It’s a strikingly unguarded and forthright record.
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The Fire Note
This is your grandparents’ Tears for Fears, which includes the makings of a mature, reflective record from the now, aging new wave ravers, which is enjoyable enough. But it’s nothing to shout about.
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Louder Than War
Supremely confident and impeccably crafted, The Tipping Point is Tears For Fears’ most consistent collection of songs, meticulously curated and even carefully sequenced to create an immersive, emotional narrative.
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The Irish Times
Musically, it’s sparkling, smooth and sometimes unpredictable, laced with almost industrial electronic flourishes you’d never expect from the duo.
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AllMusic
Varied, poetic, and poignant, The Tipping Point is, after all this time, the very album the duo wanted to make. This set is a classic-sounding Tears for Fears record, one that makes the listener take emotional, spiritual, and mental inventory of their inner world even as the one outside roils with trouble, violence, and madness. Welcome back gents, we've missed you.
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PopMatters
Tears For Fears’ The Tipping Point is exquisitely intimate, poppy, and multilayered, highlighting the deepest beauties of Smith and Orzabal’s partnership.
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Clash Magazine
A project driven by a focussed, finessed sense of purpose, ‘The Tipping Point’ is an excellent song cycle, one that touches on their innermost feelings. A vastly collaborative experience, the difficult nature of the sonics is matched by the joy unravelling them – our only hope is it doesn’t take the band two decades to conjure a follow up.
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American Songwriter
While there are few moments that challenge the band’s finest work, let alone justify the extended wait for new music, The Tipping Point reaffirms TFF’s collaborative talents. They remain idiosyncratic and distinctive in a pop music landscape now enhanced by having this veteran duo back in action again.
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Under The Radar Magazine
Perhaps most impressive of all, the record actually has a unique identity separate from Tears for Fears’ darkly melodic trove of ’80s gems; it doesn’t ride exclusively on the coattails of their past success and presents a variable, independent addition to their catalogue. It’s not a paradigm-shifting revelation that defines the modern pop rock genre (or even the band’s own career), but it certainly could be one that’ll make fans out of those who previously shunned the band for their perceived cheesy hooks and decadent synth pads. To use a hackneyed expression, this isn’t your father’s Tears for Fears.
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Commedia
Lyrically, they delivered a range of emotions, and Curt Smith’s vocals sounded better than ever. Despite having some songs that followed a predictable modern pop pattern, they managed to appeal to both their loyal fan base and a potentially younger audience.
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Metro Weekly
Eighties synthpop royalty Tears For Fears surprises with a charismatic, indulgent new album.
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Spill Magazine
The Tipping Point is the album we have been waiting for from Tears For Fears. When they split all those years ago, one could not help but feel there was more to come from these two, together. Their solo efforts are fine and enjoyable, but when they work together as they have here, albeit with outside writers, musicians and producers, they create a sound and art that is outstanding.
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Vinyl Chapters
All in all though, The Tipping Point serves as a staggering comeback for Tears for Fears, showcasing that even though they have been out of the music game for almost two full decades, their brilliance was never extinguished.
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Hotpress
It all sounds pleasant enough, and some will marvel at the production as it oozes from their speakers, but The Tipping Point will drift past others. Heartfelt as it no doubt is, this is unlikely to replace those first three albums in the majority’s affections.
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Sputnik Music
The Tipping Point made me wish I was more familiar with Tears For Fears' other works, and new albums from legacy acts that leave you wanting more out of genuine enjoyment - and not out of a feeling of "missing the good old days when they weren't terrible" - are a precious commodity indeed. At least for now, Tears For Fears can safely say they've Still Got It.
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The Post
The album may not top Songs from the Big Chair, their most popular and prestigious album, but for a veteran band revival they manage to hold their own. This album wasn’t about making a comeback or making music better than their predecessors, it was about putting out music that takes their heartbreak and loss and transforms it into their new profound sound.
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Renowned For Sound
The Tipping Point is a beautifully put together record, that encapsulates the rocky ride that Orzabal, Smith and indeed the whole world has been on since 2004. A heart-breaking example of this is the story behind the album’s title track, which Orzabal has stated is a tribute to his wife, who passed away in 2017 after suffering from depression and alcoholism. Whilst not the most memorable album, with no song being very likely to stick in many people’s minds for too long, the record does prove that Tears for Fears still have what it takes to create beautiful songs after all their years away.
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Weekend Notes
While I do understand looking at the now, I think that does remove the idea this could be a timeless album, like a lot of their 1980s heyday work has become. However, having said that, this is a good album, and one I am glad I have received. And, for what it's worth, no, I will not be talking about the third album I was given. I liked maybe three tracks from it, and it was just a disappointment.
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Stack
The Tipping Point is a tender, contemplative, enveloping experience.
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musicOMH
Ultimately, The Tipping Point is a far, far better ending than the previous one, if that’s what it turns out to be.
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Liverpool Sound and Vision
The Tipping Point is the epitome of refusing to believe that all things must end, that if the passion remains, if the minds and hearts can meet in such a way that old pressures and antagonisms can become the signals for new beliefs to take hold, and when the tipping point is embraced in such a way, it can be one of good and the necessary thought of entropy is dismissed. Such a return can only be valued and cheered, Tears For Fears have once more placed their emotions and sensations in the hands of the followers, and it is one to rejoice.
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Yorkshire Times
The advice the former manager gave them is totally misplaced as Tears for Fears are still making music that is as grand and strong as in their prime.
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