TEARS FOR FEARS: The Seeds Of Love (POP): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

In this year 1986, Tears For Fears finishes digesting the colossal success of their second album and its hits 'Shout' and others 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World'. One night in a Kansas City bar, the two friends discovered a singer with an incredible voice, Oleta Adams, who gave the duo an incredible dose of emotion and convinced them to work on their next album with more simplicity and less programming. Three years of hard work will have been necessary to carry out this project, the hiring of the divine Oleta proving to be essential. And to replace the programming, Tears For Fears has called upon an incredible array of musicians.

More simplicity in the spirit does not mean a reduction of the quality of the compositions, it is again two phenomenal hits which will very quickly carry this third album to the nues. First of all, it is the heady 'Sowing The Seeds Of Love', a thinly veiled pamphlet against Thatcherism, once again in the spotlight in Great Britain at that time, which will flood the European and American airwaves. Unstoppable chorus, neat orchestration, plethora of instruments, instrumental breaks, everything is gathered to please both the largest number of people, but also the amateurs of more worked music.

But, in introduction of the album, it is another nugget which will indicate the new direction taken by the group. Woman In Chains', a slow melody with a controlled progression, gives us a first glimpse of the incredible talent of Oleta Adams, a formidable vector of emotions for the listener, the whole underlined by an extraordinary instrumental score of accuracy and a Phil Collins with a sober drumming.

After these two hits that we will qualify as "usual" for the band, the other tracks take us in a mixture of very groovy pop, very soul ('Badman's Song'), with sometimes intimist passages, not to say introspective (the superb 'Standing On The Corner Of The Third World'). Freeing itself with happiness from the constraints of realization of formatted pop hits, Tears For Fears takes the time to set up its pieces, not hesitating to include some jazzy passages ('Swords And Knives').

Each note, each chord sounds with accuracy, as if nothing had been left to chance, without ever leaving aside the emotions that transpire through all the pores of this album that can be listened to in one go, like a concept album. Total success, "The Seeds Of Love" will be, as often in these cases, the swan song of Tears For Fears. In the meantime, those who attended the tour that followed its release keep an unforgettable memory of it more than 20 years later. To be classified without any doubt in the 10 greatest pop albums of all times. - Official website

TEARS FOR FEARS

THE SEEDS OF LOVE

MERCURY

POP