Weeping Beauty

Anniversary edition of an angst classic, in an atmospheric new mix.

- Terry Staunton

Tears For Fears

The Hurting

Mercury ARHSLP 11 (CD, LP) 

From Mick Jagger painting it black to Gary Numan locking all the doors in his Cars, neurosis has long had a place in pop. Few musicians, however, have examined their inner psyches so intensely, or so early in their careers, as Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith.

Has there ever been a radio-friendly hit single with a more despondent lyric than “the dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had”? Yet, the doom and gloom of Mad World paved the way for Tears For Fears’ 1983 debut album to soar to No 1 in only its second week of release, heading for worldwide sales in excess of one million. Clearly, soul-baring angst can be lucrative.

Forty years on, The Hurting has, if anything, grown in stature. It may have started out as a more modest proposition than the anthems and bombast of the group’s follow-up, 1985’s global breakthrough Songs From The Big Chair, but there’s a substance to Orzabal’s songs some may have found surprising from a writer not long out of his teens. He ushered in a new era of self-examination, passing on a therapeutic baton to the likes of Paddy McAloon and Lloyd Cole, while also serving as a teen response to the dolorous musings of Joy Division and The Cure.