Tears For Fears’ greatest hits more than‘pop fluff’
I _
Courtesy of Mercury Records
*» Tears for Fears
R.cuIcm/4
“Tears Roll Down: Greatest Hits
1982-1992”
Tears For Fears
Polydor Records
Now don’t laugh. While most of
our memories of this group consist of
a fleeting top-40 phase we went through
in junior high, a second glance back
through Tears For Fears’ impressive
catalog may surprise you.
And it may soothe any insecurities
you might have had about really lik
ing “Shout.”
Songwriter/driving force Roland
Orzabal has lasted this long, going
relatively unscathed critically, because
of one concept: sincerity. He really
sounds like he means everything he
sings, and it’s hard not to hum along
with his earnestness.
Throughout the last decade, Tears
For Fears produced some of the most
interesting, complex, and impassioned
pop tunes around. When any of the
songs from the group’s 1985 mam
moth bestseller “Songs from the Big
Chair” pop up on the radio, they still
sound remarkably fresh and tuneful
for a group dismissed in ’82 as pretty,
fluffy synth-heads.
“Tears Roll Down” comes at a
junction for the group, because bas
sist and No. 2 pinup boy Curt Smith
has left the band to pursue other musical
areas. Funny, because it doesn’t seem
like there is a musical territory these
guys haven’t charted, even margin
ally, throughout their career.
From the techno drone of “Mad
World” through the cocktail jazz of “I
Believe” to the glorious and under
rated 1990 concept album, “The Seeds
of Love,” the band weaves through
styles with the ease of very tasteful
and accomplished musicians, all the
while using Orzabal’s gift for empa
thized lyrics as an anchor to give the
songs some heft.
The hits are here, obviously. Therc’d
be some whining if “Mothers Talk”
was left out. But those songs that
didn’t receive ample airplay through
the years deserve a closer look. The
quasi-feminist anthem “Woman In
Chains” was one of the best things the
group had ever done, a slow pulse and
hushed vocal floating on a most heav
enly of melodies.
Likewise, the other overlooked pop
masterpiece “Advice for the Young
at Heart” never charted higher than
No. 50, though you’d be pressured to
find another tune more suited to pu
bescent radio. The sole new composi
tion, “Laid So Low,” is a lyrically
morbid tale of betrayed love, but the
melody is so tuneful and the beat is so
effortlessly relentless that it stands
apart from other dance tracks.
There was, and still is, something
about Tears For Fears’ tunefulness
that elevates Orzabal’s compositions
to something higher than pop fluff.
Maybe the songs are just too dang
mature for any tastes under the age of
20. Or 25. Whatever. As TFF heads
into its second decade, keep an eye
out for this rising young group. It may
surprise you.
— Paul Winner
American Heart Association^
■<
*
j-,
Friday, May 1“ • Lied Center ‘8 PM
Call 472-4747 or 1-800-432-3231 for Tickets ,
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UNL Rodeo
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•April
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The Fort
Sandy Creek
in the Grandstands at the State Fair
Metal madness revealed by Ozzy {
* •Metal god/animal-rights activist
Ozzy Osbourne got himself into a
little fracas last week when the
». concert he had planned in Los
Angeles to raise money for his late
guitarist Randy Rhodes* defaced
gravestone got a little out of hand.
* During the final encore, Oz invited
many of the fans onstage to mosh
around with him and the band. Mosh
► they did, taking more than $100,000
worth of music equipment to the
dumpsters with them.
Ironically, theamountOzzy lost
* on the destroyed instruments was
the amount he had hoped to raise
through ticket sales for Rhodes’
^ tombstone. Osbourne was upset,
but not surprised about the inci
dent. Just goes to show you about
the metal youth of today.
► Parents — wean your young
ones on RaTfi or prepare for inevi
table episodes like this.
*
•MuchMusic reports that former
Monkee Micky Dolenz has as
► semblcd a collection of tasteful
lullabies for a compilation of chil
A. I. i n A< A# A
dren’s songs entitled “Micky Do
lenz Puts You to Sleep.” Rhino
records has successfully resurrected
Dolenz’s career with cover tunes
like the Beatles’ “The Fool on the
Hill” and the Mamas and the Pa
pas’ “Dream a Little Dream.”
The musical community at Rhino
is extremely pleased at the shift
Dolenz’s career has taken, and many
had wondered why Micky — be
cause his voice is so well-suited for
it—didn’ t create children’s music
during his star days in the ’60s.
Yeah, like “Hey, Hey, We’re
the Monkees” and “Listen to the
Band” are classified as deep adult
entertainment.
•Fantasy Records has just issued a
generous helping of spoken-word
albums by the late, great bastard
comic Lenny Bruce, so says Pulse!
magazine. Instead of focusing on
the comedian’s life story, as so
many other compilations have wont
to do, “The Sick Humor of Lenny
Bruce” does a great job of showing
how pointed and meaty this guy’s
satire was. L
Listening to the discs again af- ^
ter so many years, and in the wake
of fellows like Howard Stem, ac
knowledges the shadow cast over ^
today’s comics, who follow Bruce’s
satirical venom with half of his
feeling and spile. Who can forget
classic shock treatments like “White y
Collar Drunks” and “How to Relax
Your Minority Friends at Parties?”
A disheartening breath of dirty L
air in these PC times. In the time
less words of Lenny, “F—k ‘em if
they can’t take a joke.”
•On a final note, author Isaac
Asimovdicdofcomplicationsaris- ^
ing from cancer last week. The
science-fiction guru churned out
an average of 10 books a year, even
until the last stage of Ips life. He y
was renowned and revered for his
prize-winning novel, “I, Robot,”
and for helping start the wave of L
sci-fi enthusiasm in the early days
of television.
— Paul Winner
W w w w
Book
Continued from Page 9
Valenzuela of Buenos Aires, author
of “Open Door,” a collection of sto
ries.
Also included is writing by Jan
Morris (who began life as a male),
author of “Pax Britannica,” and Ur
sula K. Le Guin, author of the classic
“Earthsea Trilogy,” whose long po
etic essay, “The Writer on, and at,
Her Work,” offers an interesting
glimpse into her own inner writer’s
life.
Many of the essays offr ,ch in
sight, and it is this inner field where
today’s writer fights her most serious
battles.
Although the collection is fasci
nating, and the various writers seem
to be interesting people, many of the
essays are overwritten. Much of the
language used is flowery “literary”
language.
Too many of the writers sound too
much like each other, which may
indicate there is a good deal of read
ing and writing going on between
them, or merely that they have at
tended one too many workshops on
creative writing.
It’s not a book to be read from
cover to cover, but one well worth
browsing through on a spring after
noon.
And while some of the writers
included will be familiar names, many
others may be new to the reader,
opening up new literary experiences.
For this reason alone it’s a book well
worth looking into.
Women writers, at least in our
culture, never will go back to being
second-class literary figures. The effect
of the recent explosion in women’s
writing will continue to be felt for
centuries to come.
A collection such as this one may
well be an exciting document on the
early decades of the new literary
millennium.
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