Tears For Fears "The Hurting" - The Best Emotional Synth-Pop Album

 

 

From reading this blog one or more times, I'm sure by now you've realized I have a few "favorite traits" when it comes to the music I enjoy- particularly when it comes to the lyrics. Sure, I can enjoy some "I like rock 'n' roll and beer" type music as much or more than the next person, but the bands and musicians that claw their way into the deepest part of my soul, and mean the most to me are the ones whose lyrics are much more thought-provoking, and emotional. 

If you're like me in that way, Tears For Fears' debut album, The Hurting, is definitely for you. Released on March 7th, 1983 (a Pisces album, through and through), The Hurting gave listeners a lot of different feelings, many of which they were probably unprepared to feel or deal with. Some critics completely missed the point, in my opinion, calling them "Joy Division copycats" and whiny, self-absorbed, depressed teenagers (though they were in their early twenties at the time). But if I had the chance I'd love to ask them- Why aren't we allowed to indulge, wallow, or revel in our own sadness and personal crises when we listen to or make music? (Clearly they weren't fans of goth music). Because for many of us, that's precisely what creativity and expression is for. 

Part of that negative critical reception is probably what made The Hurting fall by the wayside after the release of their biggest and most pop-oriented record, Songs From The Big Chair (1985). With chart-smashing songs like "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", The Big Chair helped Tears For Fears break out into the mainstream. So in today's world, The Hurting has become much more of a "cult classic". But I'm here to tell you why it's even more special than their most famous record, and why you should know it. 

For some of you, "Mad World" may be the only track you recognize upon a first glance. Even for my generation, it's become very well-known, and a "meme" in some cases... At this point I'd like to mention my distain for the Gary Jules cover, from the Donnie Darko film, as I believe it completely takes away the irony that lies in the song's new wave, dancable, happy beat, paired with the existential, depressing lyrics. Anyways... For other long-time TFF fans like myself, I'm sure The Hurting is so much more than just "Mad World", and holds a very special place in our hearts. I hope after reading and listening, many of you will be inclined to feel similarly about the whole record. 

The lyrical themes of the record cover many dark, painful, or taboo subjects of the human experience that many are afraid or too traumatized by to talk about. There is the loss of a friend or romantic breakup in "Memories Fade", which I personally still can't listen to without getting chills or choked up, even after hearing it so many times. "No don't pretend you can justify the end, memories fade but the scars still linger", ending the song, and leaving us with that feeling anyone who's ever loved and lost can understand. Or there's the talk of childhood trauma, in a very personal way, in "Suffer the Children", where you can tell this definitely comes from a very real place for lyricist Roland Orzabal. This one is also quite hard to listen to for some, and goes well-beyond the usual feelings of an absent parent or parents, and goes so far as to question why he should have even been born, if no one was going to take care of him ("And it's so unfair... when you gave him his life"). 

A personal favorite, and perhaps my favorite TFF song period, is the third track, "Pale Shelter". It is another song partially dealing with parental issues and a lack of love and care as a child, but can also be thought of in a romantic, more grownup way. I'm more inclined to view it in the latter way, but fully respect Orzabal's original thought as it relates to his dark upbringing. It is everything an 80's new wave song should be, in that it has a catchy and fully dancable synth beat, but it has the introspective, thoughtful lyrics that fully fit the description of "sophisticated pop". The music video, with its unique use of paper airplanes, is a favorite of mine to see projected on the wall at my local new wave music video night at the club. Check out the song and video for yourself, below. 

Overall, The Hurting is an incredibly revealing album, that makes us face a lot of dark or unpleasant feelings from childhood to adulthood, that without an excellent synth-pop beat, we probably wouldn't be comfortable dealing with. Orzabal's ability to make listeners connect with him and fellow bandmate, Curt Smith, on experiences seemingly specific to them, lies in his amazingly poetic, emotional songwriting skills. It is a skill that pairs well specifically with this type of music (new wave, synth-pop, goth, darkwave), and is a large part of the reason we love it. While many will remember Tears For Fears for Songs From The Big Chair and their still artfully crafted pop-hits, it is The Hurting than remains many fans' favorite, especially those with a bleeding heart, and a melancholic disposition. 

Thank you all for reading, as always, and please do check out The Hurting, start to finish, in all its heart-wrenching glory. Have a thoughtful and emotionally enlightening weekend! 

Roland Orzabal (left) and Curt Smith (right), of Tears For Fears photographed in 1983.

Nostalgia Alternative's Definitive Halloween Playlist

 

It's that spooky, scary time of year again! And if you're like me, then you're probably tired of hearing the usual, standard Halloween tracks at your neighbor's Halloween party. If you're looking for something fresh and new, featuring some more "obscure" Halloween inspired music, look no further than Nostalgia Alternative's own Halloween Playlist! Carefully curated, and updated year after year, my Halloween playlist is one that I'm very proud of. It has some classics to keep your more casual-listener friends entertained (see: "Thriller", or "Ghostbusters"), but is 90% that post-punk, goth, metal, and overall "alternative" music that we love. There's such a variety though, that there should be something for every spooky music fan on here. With bands such as the Ramones or Talking Heads, to Slayer and to Lady Gaga (yes, you read that right)- you're bound to find at least one track to be a new Halloween favorite. Whether you're wanting to hear an entirely new playlist, or just find one or two new songs to add to your own playlist, I hope you enjoy my take on music that feels right for this classic holiday! 

I'll leave the link to my Halloween Playlist up here, and you can also listen to it via the Spotify player in the sidebar, if you're viewing this from your desktop. But! Before you get too into it, this is a blog afterall, so I want to talk about my choices in songs for a bit first, and then I invite you to check out the entire thing to your heart's content. 

With the large amount of different genres I feature on this playlist, it may seem a little all over the place at a first glance, but you have to remember the unifying theme is not genre- but Halloween. These are all songs that give off scary, eerie, or unsettling vibes that feel just like Halloween should, and at the same time, most of them are great to play at a party! 

Funny enough, I feature four different songs on this playlist that are titled simply "Halloween". There's one from the Misfits, Sonic Youth, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Helloween. And yes- all of them are necessary, and very different from one another. The Misfits "Halloween" is fast, brash, punk and clocks in at just under 2 minutes long. It serves as a great intro. track that sets the mood in a simple way to tell you just what this playlist is about ("I remember Halloween!"). Sonic Youth's is a much slower, creepy, actually genuinely scary if you're out alone at night, take on the word. It tells a cryptic, unnerving story that is left purposely open-ended, and to me, feels perfectly like that specific paranoia fear you get just before something terrifying is going to happen ("There's something shifting in the distance, don't know what it is..."). 

Then as for the Banshees, their "Halloween"  is rumored to be about something even scarier than slashers and ghosts- the loss of innocence that happens as we get older. It is like a short story on how much we get excited for things like Halloween when we're younger, versus how those things can become boring or a hassle when we're adults (unless you're a goth, of course). And there seems to be a sinister, darker meaning to loss of innocence- like someone or something scary or traumatic stopped your young love for Halloween. A very realistic type of fear is hidden in this song, underneath a thick layer of fun, spooky, and with a catchy chorus ("'Trick or treat', the bitter and the sweet"). Finally, Helloween's "Halloween" is an over 13 minute novel of a song, bridging the gap between the supernatural fear you feel on Halloween, and the fun, excitement that it also brings ("Magic in the air on Halloween, Black is the night full of fright..."). It might be one your party guests will want to skip, if they're not big metal fans especially, but if you still want to hear it on your own time, it's worth the length. With a Charlie Brown reference, and the talk of good, evil, and heaven and hell, it's like all the different things you were told about Halloween growing up, wound into one epic, power metal saga.

Normally I'd link one or more of these songs below, but I'll leave it for the whole playlist. Next up what I'd like to mention is one of the standout, oddballs on this mix (or at least maybe odd to you). While the uninitiated might find it strange, I happen to enjoy a fair amount of Lady Gaga's music- Particularly her Born This Way album, where she went for a deliberately eclectic, 70's & 80's pop-rock sound and aesthetic (and she nailed it). There's a song on there you might remember if you enjoyed pop music in the early 2010's, called "Judas". It's a heavily Madonna inspired track, but with a darker twist than she might have dared to do in her heyday. On the album it's a dancey, fun track about being "in love with Judas", despite wanting to be true to Jesus (pop-flavored blasphemy at its finest). But, the version I feature here on this playlist is not much like the original at all. It's the Goldfrapp remix of the track... which turns it borderline demonic. Gaga's voice is distorted, and deepened, making her sound possessed by evil, rather than just happily singing about it. It's as if "Judas" and the essence of betrayal has consumed her, taking her over. It honestly sounds truly terrifying, in an Exorcist sort of way, and genuinely scared me the first time I heard it. But! The thumping electronic beat, combined with this scary, demonic reimagining, make it a perfect Halloween party track. I'll let you hear it for yourself, if you're still skeptical over the name "Gaga". Trust me, it's anything but "pop". 

Finally, I'd like to mention one more intriguing highlight of this playlist for me, before I send you on your way to go listen to all of it. I feature 3 songs on here from goth favorites, The Cure. This of course includes the obvious yet timeless, "Lullaby", as well as their original song for spooky film classic, The Crow, "Burn". There's one more Cure song I find to be perfectly fitting of Halloween, and that's their slow, groovy-goth cover of Jimi Hendrix classic, "Purple Haze".  Their version takes it from a fast and furious rocker, to a spooky, mystical gothic perspective. I never would have thought of the original as a Halloween song at all, because it doesn't scare me or make me want to be scared at all. But the minute I heard the Cure's cover, it just felt right. For me, it's the slowed down beat, combined with Robert Smith's signature "spooky" voice, that makes this a modern Halloween classic. Give it a listen for yourself, below, and hopefully you'll feel it too. 

So that's all I'll say about my Halloween Alternative mix for now. I think hopefully it should speak for itself, and you'll understand a majority of the song choices without my explanation. But, if you are curious about any, feel free to reach out to me, and I'll give you as shallow or deep of an answer as you like. Also, this is a Spotify playlist, as that is my main method of streaming music, but if I know you in "real life", you can feel free to reach out and ask for a physical copy on CD, as that is a lost art / favorite hobby of mine (or I can create a YouTube playlist version, if anyone asks for it!). 

Halloween is creeping up around the corner... or if you're a goth, it's all year 'round! So whether you've got a party planned or just want something to enjoy with a glass of cider by yourself, I hope Nostalgia Alternative's Halloween Mix is what you've been looking for! Thanks for reading this brief overview of it (very brief, as the playlist is nearly 4 and a half hours in length!), and I hope you'll enjoy what you hear! Happy Halloween, Blessed Samhain, and happy spooky season to you all! 

"Boo Wave", goth & new wave artist Halloween art, by Matthew Lineham.

U2's "The Unforgettable Fire" - Their Most Ambitious & Artistic Work

 

When my family and I travelled to Ireland for our summer vacation in 2016, I knew the most important place we needed to visit was the castle U2 used for the cover of their album, The Unforgettable Fire, in 1984. Released on October 1st, 1984, the Unforgettable Fire is one of U2's strangest, most artistic albums- and it is also my favorite. It marked a change in sound from their earlier works, and the decision was completely deliberate by the band, along with ambient music legend, and the album's producer, Brian Eno. At the time, the band was worried about being pigeonholed as a "stadium rock" or more basic, mainstream rock band, as they were starting to establish a name for themselves after releasing War one year prior. The sound on the Unforgettable Fire is the most atmospheric and ambient of anything they've released to date, and the lyrics are the most obscure and poetic... you can probably start to understand why it's my favorite already, but let's take a closer look at the history and significance of the record, to give you the full story.

Moydrum Castle in Ireland, photographed by Alex Byrne, 2016.

The castle the band photographed to use for the cover of the Unforgettable Fire, was Moydrum Castle, which has been in a state of ruin, since it was set afire by the Irish Republican Army in 1921, during the Irish War of Independence. This was U2's first time working with photographer Anton Corbijn, who photographed the castle and placed a sepia tone over it, and later imposed the image of the band members. The photo was actually an exact copy of an already existing image (minus the added filter and band members), so the band had to pay an unknown sum for the rights to use it. 

I didn't know any of this when I begged my parents to drive us around Ireland in our rental car, until we could find this ruined castle, in the middle of nowhere. But they didn't mind so much- they have both been huge U2 fans since the early 80's. In fact, I wore my mom's original Unforgettable Fire tour shirt she got after seeing them play the Aragon Ballroom in '84, that day we went to find the castle. To add yet another level of nerdiness to it all, we were playing the album through the car speakers as we took our own pictures of the castle, one of mine you can see pictured above. It was a borderline spiritual experience, and definitely the highlight of the trip for me.

U2, photographed by Anton Corbijn in 1984, for the Unforgettable Fire album.

There is so much rich history and references enveloping the Unforgettable Fire album, that it would be impossible for me to talk about the record without mentioning it. But for now, let's talk about the music. The album itself is almost a concept album, in that it seems to follow a sort of story, and have an entirely cohesive sound and theme. "A Sort of Homecoming", as its opener, puts this story idea into place, as the song is partially a reference to the band changing, and reflects singer and lyricist, Bono's now more serious approach to songwriting. Followed by the song that became the most popular off the album, "Pride (In the Name of Love)", which is Bono's anthemic ode to Martin Luther King Jr., who would be referenced and memorialized on later tracks of the album as well. "Pride" is probably the most straightforward "rock" song on the album, and has fairly simplistic lyrics, but it still fits the mood of the record. It is more the powerful way in which Bono sings the lyrics that gives them meaning. That, combined with the Edge's iconic, standout guitar-playing, makes the song sound as strong as it does. Listen to its power for yourself, below.

Moving forward a bit, to get to the song I'm most excited to talk about- the title track. Here is what I deem the best thing to have come out of the U2 / Brain Eno collaboration. It is the most mysterious, atmospheric song, with the most poetic, fragmented lyrics. The title and lyrics are said to have been inspired by the band's viewing of an art exhibition by the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With this in mind, one could start to make sense of the lyrics, but there is still something left purposely obscure, which I think is just part of its charm. It doesn't sound like any other U2 song out there, before or after it. It sounds just as magical and mysterious as that ruined castle on the cover. Hear it for yourself, below.

Something that makes U2 fans past and present disenchanted with the Unforgettable Fire, is the amount of "filler" or short, interlude-like tracks on the album. But, for that reason it did exactly what the band wanted it to do. It weeded out those "fake fans" who couldn't handle the band stepping outside their simplistic rock format, and letting their creative spirits fly. I for one do not find those shorter, instrumental or limited-lyrics tracks to be "filler", but that in fact they add something to the album, that would make it feel less powerful, were they not there. 

For example, between the title track, and the next song I want to talk about, "Bad", there are two short, nearly instrumental, or fully instrumental tracks- "Promenade" and "4th of July". Both of those tracks bridge the gap between my two favorite songs on the album, and set such a dramatic, yet meditative mood, before the anthemic, "clench your fist and cry" (as I like to call it) energy of "Bad" comes rolling in. One should enter that meditative state before "Bad" comes on, or they may not be ready for it. A powerful, emotional song that is loosely based on heroin addiction, but has become so much more as it has aged. Bono has stated that the song never got finished, and that its lyrics are "fragments"- again, leaving that air of obscurity and mystery, that allows us to put our own experiences and meaning into the words. As someone who has never had an experience with the drug it's supposed to be about, I relate to it in my own, different way, but one that is still deeply spiritual. It feels to me like the washing away of this great sin, or guilt, or sadness. It feels like emerging from this cave and seeing the light, and realizing that it feels good to be alive again, even though you may still feel pain. I know it's not just me who feels so strongly about it, as it has been a crowd favorite at their concerts since the album's release all those years ago. Maybe it doesn't make as many tears flow as one of their later songs like "With or Without You", but it's probably a close second. Hear its power, and get goosebumps for yourself, by listening below. 

I'd like to end by talking about the final song on the record, "MLK". It is like the follow-up to "Pride (In the Name of Love)", in that it revisits Bono's reverence for Martin Luther King Jr., with a more straightforward elegy, rather than a harder rock song. It has simple, but thoughtful lyrics, that are so emotional, it is a shame they couldn't have been read at MLK's actual funeral. But it was still greatly appreciated by King's wife's organization, the King Center, where Bono received the highest honor for writing it, as well as "Pride". Even on their more ambient, atmospheric album, U2 still managed to bring forth the social and political commentary that makes them stand out amongst other popular rock bands (to some people's delight, and to other's annoyance). I think it was done in a way that complements the rest of the album, and isn't overbearing. 

The Unforgettable Fire is an enigma of an album. It was U2 purposefully wanting to be different, and seen more as creative artists, and less as rock hit-makers. And it worked! The previous fans that liked it stuck around for more, and those that didn't, saw themselves out. For me, it is my favorite U2 album, and even their "magnum opus", the Joshua Tree, doesn't hold a candle to the lyrical and musical power it has. Seeing that castle in person, with the Unforgettable Fire playing in the background, was an experience I'm sure not many others have been able to have, and one I cherish. To me, it was like a monument to their work, and a physical embodiment of the magic the album possesses. If you appreciate the album as much as I do, I hope you get to make the same pilgrimage to Ireland to see it, that I did one day. And if this is your first time hearing about it, or listening to it, I hope you liked what you heard / read! Thank you as always for reading, and I hope I'll find you on the next post! 

The Unforgettable Fire tour shirt my mom got while seeing them live in Chicago, in 1984.