Songs from the Big Chair
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- pop rock<ref name="Rosenberg" />
- progressive pop<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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Songs from the Big Chair is the second studio album by the English pop rock band Tears for Fears, released on 25 February 1985 by Phonogram Records and Mercury Records. The follow-up to the band's successful debut album, The Hurting (1983), Songs from the Big Chair was a significant departure from that album's dark, introspective synth-pop, featuring a more mainstream, guitar-based pop rock sound, sophisticated production values and diverse stylistic influences, while Roland Orzabal and Ian Stanley's lyrics displayed socially and politically conscious themes.
The album peaked at number two in the UK and at number one in the US, becoming a multi-platinum seller in several countries and the band's most successful studio album to date. The singles "Shout" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" both topped the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached the top 5 of the UK Singles Chart, while "Head over Heels", "Mothers Talk", and a re-recorded version of "I Believe" were also successful internationally. Receiving positive critical reviews upon release, Songs from the Big Chair has accrued lasting praise and has been named one of the best albums of the 1980s,<ref name="Slant1980s" /><ref name="Pitchfork1980s" /><ref name="Paste1980s" /> and was included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.<ref name="Doran" />
Background
The album was to be titled The Working Hour, but Roland Orzabal thought to change it to Songs from the Big Chair,<ref name="Classic">Template:Cite episode</ref> a title derived from the 1976 American television film Sybil about a woman with multiple personality disorder who only feels safe when sitting in her analyst's "big chair." The title, according to Curt Smith, reflects both the distinct personalities of each song on the album, and the band's opinion that they were the targets of a hostile British music press at the time.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
In an interview for the 2006 deluxe-version booklet, Smith noted: "We were very introverted on The Hurting; it was a very dark album. We found the need to be more outgoing on The Big Chair."<ref name="Booklet">Template:Cite AV media notes</ref>
The band started to generate new material for their second album in 1983. The first songs written for the new album were "Mothers Talk", "Head over Heels", and "The Working Hour", which the band played live during their December 1983 tour, as captured on the In My Mind's Eye concert performance video.<ref name="Booklet" />
Writing and recording
The album was recorded at The Wool Hall (the band's own studio) in 1984. Conceptually and musically, it further developed the band's sound from the previous studio album The Hurting (1983), expanding the use of guitars in addition to their electronic sound and imparting a wider approach overall. Early songs written for the album included "Head over Heels", "The Working Hour", and "Mothers Talk", which was released months before the album as a single. These songs, as well as "We Are Broken" (the B-side to "Pale Shelter" and now segued with "Head over Heels" due to the shared musical motif), were all performed on Tears for Fears' December 1983 tour that featured in In My Mind's Eye.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The song "Shout" became a central work during the recording of the album, and the band and producer Chris Hughes spent months working on the track.<ref name="Johnson">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
The album utilises many styles and influences, and progressive rock was cited as a primary influence on the album.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "I Believe" was influenced by the songwriting of Robert Wyatt, and was originally intended for him to record but the band recorded it themselves.<ref name="Rosenberg" /> "Broken" is a reworking of the earlier "We Are Broken" and a studio version and a live reprise bookends the song "Head over Heels". The largely instrumental "Listen" has been described as a symphonic piece.<ref name="Rosenberg" /> Lyrically, the psychological themes on The Hurting were continued and extended to include a variety of themes such as politics, war, money, and love.<ref name="Rosenberg" />
Near the end of the completion of the album, Roland Orzabal played two simple chords on his acoustic guitar that formed the foundation of the song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World". Although he was initially not interested in working on it, Orzabal was convinced to write a song based on the two chords and he added the chorus line. The song was completed in about a week and was the last track recorded for the album.<ref name="Johnson" />
Release
Songs from the Big Chair was released on 25 February 1985<ref name="auto" /> with a black and white photograph of Orzabal and Smith on the record cover. LP copies retained a mixing error in which the left and right stereo channels were swapped; this was corrected for most CD editions. The sole exception was a 1998 reissue by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, which retained the LP stereo imaging.<ref name="Sinclair 2014">Template:Cite web</ref>
The album reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and spawned several commercially successful singles, including two top 5 hits: "Mothers Talk" (UK #14), "Shout" (UK #4), "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" (UK #2),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> "Head over Heels" (UK #12),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and "I Believe" (UK #23).<ref name="Chart">Template:Cite web</ref>
The radio-friendly "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" marked the band's breakthrough in the United States; both this single and its follow-up, "Shout", reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. Songs from the Big Chair also reached number one on the Billboard 200 and sold five million copies in the US alone.<ref name="auto" /> In the UK, it spent 79 consecutive weeks on the album chart, remaining on the chart for 18 months until September 1986.<ref name="Chart" />
To mark the album's 30th anniversary, Universal Music released Songs from the Big Chair in five different formats on 10 November 2014.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Critical reception
Contemporary
Songs from the Big Chair received generally positive reviews. Comparing it with The Hurting, Johnny Waller of Sounds said that "Tears for Fears have lovingly crafted a new masterpiece with softer, smoky vocals, more tempting melodies and less abrasive rhythms", concluding that "within accepted confines, Tears for Fears are stretching and growing, expanding both their imagination and their horizons."<ref name="Waller" /> Smash Hits critic Ian Cranna found that the band's "looser, more exploratory" approach resulted in songs of "unflinching lyrical honesty" and "touching vulnerability",<ref name="Cranna" /> while in Melody Maker, Barry McIlheney called it "an album that fully justifies the rather sneering, told-you-so looks adopted by Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal on the sleeve".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In NME, Danny Kelly praised Songs from the Big Chair as "a calculated and brilliant peak, a quintessence of polished pop puttyTemplate:Nbsp... perfect at its shimmering surface, worthless to its craven core." He described it as a descendant of 10cc's The Original Soundtrack (1975) and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)–a "product of obsessional care and attention to (often unnecessary) detail".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Eleanor Levy was more ambivalent in Record Mirror, finding Songs from the Big Chair produced too "slickly" at points and stating that Tears for Fears "come up with the occasional classic, but they can't carry this through a whole album. Not yet".<ref name="Levy" /> Don Shewey of Rolling Stone found the band derivative of acts such as U2, Echo & the Bunnymen, and XTC but complimented the album's "sparkling" production, ultimately deeming its songs "more interesting for their textures than for their melodies or lyrics."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The Village VoiceTemplate:'s Robert Christgau felt that while its music and lyrics showed "substance", the record is "not so much pretentious as portentous, promising a depth and drama English lads have been falling short on since the dawn of progressive rock."<ref name="Christgau" />
Retrospective
Calling it "an artistic tour de force", AllMusic reviewer Stanton Swihart said that Songs from the Big Chair "heralded a dramatic maturation in the band's music, away from the synth-pop brand with which it was (unjustly) seared following the debut, and towards a complex, enveloping pop sophistication." He added that "Orzabal and Smith's penchant for theorizing with steely-eyed austerity was mistaken for harsh bombasticism in some quarters, but separated from its era, the album only seems earnestly passionate and immediate".<ref name="Swihart" /> In a 2006 piece for Stylus Magazine, Andrew Unterberger wrote that "even today, when all rock musicians seem to be able to do is be Template:Em and Template:Em, the brutality and power of Songs from the Big ChairTemplate:'s catharsis is still quite shocking."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Michael Roffman of Consequence credited Tears for Fears for managing to create an album that, although more commercial than their previous work, "actually feels more expansive and sprawling and adventurous".<ref name="Roffman" />
In his review for Pitchfork, Tal Rosenberg reflected that "in the same way that Fleetwood Mac's Rumours conveys the lonely narcissism and hedonism of the '70s, or Love's Forever Changes captures both the bliss and the ominousness of the Summer of Love", Songs from the Big Chair "manages to exude the 1980s" with its "personal psychology, meticulous compositions, and world-sized choruses", which all "evoked the loss of control in an overwhelming era".<ref name="Rosenberg" /> Similarly, Mark Elliott from Record Collector commented that the album and its "high-gloss" sound "captured the mid-80s zeitgeist perfectly."<ref name="Elliott" /> Roffman noted its usage of novel production techniques for its time such as MIDI programming and sampling and argued that "such sonic tinkering pushed Tears for Fears ahead of their colleagues, elevating the outfit as a legitimate forerunner of pop music", while also observing that the album's songs had endured "far past the crazy '80s, instead becoming essential anthems for generations yet to come."<ref name="Roffman" />
Songs from the Big Chair has appeared in several professional lists of the best albums of the 1980s. The album was ranked 95th by Slant Magazine,<ref name="Slant1980s">Template:Cite web</ref> 87th by Pitchfork,<ref name="Pitchfork1980s">Template:Cite web</ref> and 47th by Paste.<ref name="Paste1980s">Template:Cite web</ref> It was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.<ref name="Doran">Template:Cite book</ref> In February 2020, the album was the focus of an episode of the BBC's Classic Albums documentary series. The episode included new interviews with key personnel including Orzabal, Smith, Stanley, Hughes, engineer Dave Bascombe, Oleta Adams, John Grant, and A&R man David Bates.<ref name="Classic" />
Track listing
Template:Track listing Template:Track listing
Personnel
Tears for Fears
- Roland Orzabal – vocals, keyboards, guitars (all but 5), synth bass (1), LinnDrum programming (1), grand piano (5)
- Curt Smith – vocals, bass guitar (2, 4-7), synth bass (3)<ref name="Johnson" />
- Ian Stanley – keyboards, LinnDrum programming, arrangements (8)
- Manny Elias – drums (2–7), drum arrangement (2)
Additional personnel
- "Shout": Chris Hughes – drums, Sandy McLelland – backing vocals
- "The Working Hour": Andy Davis – grand piano, Mel Collins – saxophone, Will Gregory – saxophone solos, Jerry Marotta – percussion and saxophone arrangements
- "Everybody Wants to Rule the World": Neil Taylor – second guitar solo, Chris Hughes – LinnDrum and MIDI programming
- "Mothers Talk": Stevie Lange – backing vocals
- "I Believe": Will Gregory – saxophone
- "Broken": Neil Taylor – guitar solo
- "Head Over Heels": Andy Davis – grand piano, Marilyn Davis – backing vocals, Annie McCaig – backing vocals, Sandy McLelland – backing vocals
- "Listen": Marilyn Davis – operatic vocal
- "The Big Chair": samples dialogue from the film Sybil (1976)
Production and artwork
- Chris Hughes – producer
- Dave Bascombe – engineer
- Tim O'Sullivan – cover photography
- Paul King – management
Charts
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Weekly charts
| Chart (1985) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)Template:Sfn | 5 |
| European Albums (Music & Media)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | 5 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> | 11 |
| Italian Albums (Musica e dischi)<ref>Template:Cite web Select "Album" in the "Tipo" field, type "Songs from the big chair" in the "Titolo" field and press "cerca".</ref> | 6 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> | 13 |
| Spanish Albums (AFYVE)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> | 18 |
| Chart (2014) | Peak position |
|---|
| Chart (2020–2021) | Peak position |
|---|
Year-end charts
| Chart (1985) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)Template:Sfn | 6 |
| Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | 2 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | 8 |
| European Albums (Music & Media)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | 7 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | 24 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | 8 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> | 25 |
| UK Albums (Gallup)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | 5 |
| US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | 10 |
| Chart (1986) | Position |
|---|---|
| European Albums (Music & Media)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | 85 |
| UK Albums (Gallup)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | 66 |
| US Billboard 200<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> | 19 |
Certifications and sales
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