Reunited Tears for Fears enjoys 'Happy Ending'
By Dean Johnson
Saturday, October 30, 2004

They barely saw or spoke to each other for more than a decade. Now they live less than a mile apart. ``We can even share the same limo,'' joked Roland Orzabal, who along with Curt Smith founded the '80s Brit pop band Tears For Fears.
     No wonder the band's fine new reunion disc is titled ``Everybody Loves a Happy Ending.''
      ``The title sums it all up, doesn't it?'' Orzabal said. ``If this disc does well, it would be a fabulous swan song, a fabulous way to complete the `legend' and add to our legacy.''
     The word ``legend'' may be a bit much to describe the group, which is at the Orpheum in Boston tonight. But Orzabal and Smith all but defined '80s Brit pop on the strength of such hits as ``Shout,'' ``Head Over Heels,'' ``Everybody Wants to Rule the World'' and ``Sowing the Seeds of Love.''
     It all came apart in 1990 when Smith left the band. TFF limped along for a few more years with Orzabal as the sole frontman, but the band was DOA by 1996.
     ``We grew up together,'' said Orzabal. ``When you hang out as mates and then your relationship changes into something that is ultimately a professional one, it becomes a bit more confused.''
     So the two went their separate ways and even tried to carve out separate careers. Orzabal stayed in England, Smith remarried and moved to America. Nothing much happened on either career front, but they occasionally kept in touch for strictly business purposes.
     Then, ``Curt sort of rang me up out of the blue'' about four years ago, Orzabal said, ``and I realized then we didn't have any shared experiences anymore, and that was fabulous. We could each have our own space and not fear of merging into something else.
     ``So we hooked up for dinner and saw that there was no angst or tension between us anymore. He started playing stuff for me he already had, like `Ladybird' and `The Closest Thing to Heaven.' '' They then began collaborating again.Both songs are on the new disc, which is once again crammed with richly layered, Beatles-esque tunes.
     ``We do that on purpose,'' he admitted. ``We're showboating. This time around I had been trying to get away from traditional songwriting and wanted more instrumental and trippy things. There was a little bit of showing off involved.

``When you have an album called `Everybody Loves a Happy Ending,' '' he said, ``you're just asking for McCartney to walk into the room and start playing some sort of music on the piano.''
      This could be the final tour for the band, the new disc possibly the last one. But Orzabal believes the duo's original chemistry is back.
     ``When Curt and I work together, something in that relationship makes us want to make larger statements and be more competitive and see more success. On our own, we're both happy to just do what we want, and who cares about the consequences?''