The Double Doghouse

this week for the weekly review, we’re checking out Tears For Fears’ 1985 record, Songs From The Big Chair. let’s dig in!

man i cannot say how pleasantly surprised i was that this record opened with Shout. i’m familiar with a few Tears For Fears songs, but i would definitely not call myself extremely familiar with them, and Shout is a great start to this. the track’s got such a neat, airyness to it that im tempted to call it an emptiness if it wasnt so filled with activity. very fun track, deserving of being the huge hit it was. its interest though, since The Working Hour, with its long intro, almost feels like it could have been an opener itself. neat track about the anxiety of working as a professional artist under a business entity. Everybody Wants To Rule The World is another one of their massive hits i knew going in – and yup, upon closer inspection still slaps. good track. Mothers Talk feels very Duran Duran to me, haha. obviously the two are floating in the same sonic pool, but this one def feels the strongest to me off the record. the bridge here has a REALLY cool breakdown too. I Believe takes a different tone musically, feeling almost kind of like a lounge piano song, with the vocals having a kind of pleading feeling to them. a very raw track for sure, and an interesting contrast musically to whats been on the record so far. Broken was funny for me, knowing the refrain but not being able to remember where it came from. its a really good track itself, for sure, but then when the slower version of the refrain came on at the start of Head Over Heals i was like “oh, yeah, duh me”. another certified banger – interesting to have a kind of reserved love song between the halves of Broken. i get what Listen is putting down but honestly it doesnt do much for me.

faves – Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule the World, Mothers Talk, Broken, Head Over Heels / Broken (Reprise)
dislikes –

yeah this record slaps. buncha hits i hadnt connected in my brain before and some really good tracks tying then together. very cool record about finding your place in adulthood in the many different arenas youre expected to show up in, and that kind of airy, lost feeling you can have if you arrive there with no direction. fun record.

Songs From the Big Chair – 8/10

next week, i’ll be listening to Tom Waits’s 1992 album, Bone Machine.  i’ll be back next Friday, March 17th with that review and to pick another weekly record, and in the meantime, let me know what album you’d like me to review! (i pool all suggestions in one place, and draw a person, then one pick from that person, so feel free to drop as many as you’d like! if you leave an email or username i’ll contact you when i’ve gotten through all your suggestions.)