MUSIC REVIEWS: Tears For Fears starts anew with 'Happy Ending'

By CHUCK CAMPBELL, Scripps Howard News Service
(September 27, 6:30 am PDT) - New releases from Tears For Fears, The Prodigy and Lhasa.



"EVERYBODY LOVES A HAPPY ENDING," Tears For Fears, NewDoor

The Tears For Fears duo Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith stormed their native England with 1983's "The Hurting," had America swooning two years later with "Songs From the Big Chair" and then logged one of the best Beatles knockoffs in pop history with 1989's "The Seeds of Love."

Then came the inevitable fall. Smith left the act to struggle with an identity apart from Orzabal, who kept Tears For Fears going rather unsuccessfully for a few years before scrapping the act.

It's surprising that the newly reunited duo is still in Fab Four mode 15 years after "The Seeds of Love," but here they are on "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending," knocking out tunes like they barely took a break since their last release together.

Such a heartening rebirth will regenerate interest in Tears For Fears among the old faithful, and if the music climate were more receptive to melodic soundscapes, the act could add sizable hits to their discography.

Even if the fallout is only a positive ripple, the vivid "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending" churns with beautiful pop. The gorgeous, sad harmonies of "Who You Are" recall the impact of "Eleanor Rigby," while the sweeping "Secret World" soars into arching choruses with pretty flourishes. Also, "Size of Sorrow" bubbles with electronic percolation to create a languid daydream, and "Closest Thing to Heaven" is rich with hooks and intertwining bass and keyboards.

Yet "Who Killed Tangerine?" is the stunner cut, rising out of a dark opening to theatrically wind its way to an explosive gang-chorus of "When you think it's all over/It's not over, it's not over" that nearly has the power of "Hey Jude's" legendary vamp out.

Although Tears For Fears overplays its baroque tendencies on the title track and periodically slips into drowsy passages of affectation, "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending" is a refreshing return. And if this happens to be a one-off, true ending for the duo, it's a happy goodbye punctuated by its optimistic closer, "Last Days on Earth."

Rating (four possible): 4