Customer Reviews

Hurting (Audio Cassette)

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Hi, I am from India.
Words fail to clearly express the sheer beauty and impact of the album, "The Hurting". This album is a must for anyone who really loves music with a lot of substance and adventure. TEARS FOR FEARS is my all-time favourite band. Also, I personally feel, in many respects, TEARS FOR FEARS is the only perfect band in the whole world. If you don't believe me, just listen to this debut album of TEARS FOR FEARS.

Each and every track is a classic in its own way. Here is my review of each and every track:

1) The Hurting: Title track that gives a glimpse of how thoughtful this band actually is. This one track should prove that Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal are people with genuine insight and that by no means are they negative. How about lines such as:
"Get in line with the things you know.
Feel the pain, feel the sorrow
Touch the hurt and don't let go, don't let go
Get in line with the things you know
Lean to cry like a baby
Then the hurting won't come back, they won't come back, won't come back"

The echoing guitars perfectly fit the mood and are a treat for the ears. Both Curt and Roland sing this song.

2) Mad World: Moody and reflective song. The song is not negative. It is about the current situation of people living their lives without any morals or values. It is a call for doing something to improve the terrible situation. The song sounds very much relevant and fresh to this day.

3) Pale Shelter: The song is about the lack of love in the lives of children due to inaccessible parents. Fine blend of acoustics and electronics. The Spanish guitar strumming is amazing!

4) Ideas as Opiates: This song is as good as its title. Slightly difficult to understand when I heard for the first time. From what I perceive, it is about those people who mislead the general public with their opinions and who don't actually care about the good-will of the society. The saxophone work is incredible.

5) Memories Fade: Totally blown off when I heard it for the first time. Incredible keyboard, guitar and saxophone arrangements. You can sense the actual mood from Roland's singing and the lively instrumentation.

6) Suffer the Children: The first song recorded and released by TEARS FOR FEARS. Like Pale Shelter, a very thoughtful song about children who don't get proper attention and love during their growing years. Nice pop song.

7) Watch Me Bleed: According to me, the second most philosophical track of the album. Once again, the song is not negative. Great pop-rock. Wonderful and sensible keyboard/guitar arrangement.

8) Change: Brilliant xylophone playing which goes round and round. Very good song!

9) The Prisoner: The most philosophical song of the entire album. The hammering gothic music perfectly fits the mood. The disturbing sound is a must for this track. It is worth contemplating about this track. How about lines such as:
"Here behind the wall
I feel so small
Feeling and not believing
Here anger is me
Love sets me free
Waiting but not relating"

These are the lines that speak of most of us humans, right? We have so many negative tendencies within us because of which we feel we are in a prison and that we are not really free. Once we realise that, we can try to free ourselves. The song is about all that.

10) Start of the Breakdown: The keyboard and percussion arrangements are simply brilliant because the song perfectly gives rise to the actual feeling of a breakdown situation.

11) The Way You Are: A non-album track, which appears on the remastered CD. Very unusual and up-tempo track. Very odd percussion arrangement, it actually reminds me of a percussion instrument called "Chenda". Artists associated with temples or Kathakali in Kerala, South India, play chendas.

There are also lovely re-mixed versions of "Pale Shelter", "Mad World" and "Change".

That's all, folks. Above all, just as the name suggests, TEARS FOR FEARS is a band with a positive attitude. Their music really cannot be categorised. Most of their records are genuinely good, timeless and relevant. Buy this album, enjoy and feel every moment.

Not that Tears For Fears were ever conventional "The Hurting"
does have an overall sobering affect.At least lyrically-suffering
and discontent seem to be a reucerring theme.Yet "Pale Shelter",
"Ideas For Opiates",the minimal "Memory Fades "and the fabulous
"Mad World" are musically ambitious enough to back up the bands
lyrical ideas.Definately a stand-out moment of 1983!

It's madness indeed when this album, one of the best debut's that I can recall, has been essentially relegated to early '80s obscurity. Even recently, it nearly killed me when I heard a remake of the song "Mad World" at the end of a Smallville episode, especially seeing as how a version that should have benefitted from 20 years of production advances was still so clearly inferior to the original.

This first collaboration between Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith is full of beautiful music and introspective lyrics. You can't listen to "Pale Shelter", "The Hurting" and "Mad World" without being permeated by Roland's angst. (he penned every song on the album) There's a darkness here that's never been so ably repeated on a subsequent TFF album, and the raw, unrefined talents of these two men is altogether frightening. Although eclipsed by the later commercial success of "Songs from the Big Chair", "Hurting" may indeed be the more ambitious and significant musical statement. I truly believe that were this album released today, it would be every bit as fresh and provocative as it was twenty years ago.

As for the remastering.....if the tempo has indeed been tampered with (which I had not noticed, but will now listen for) than its a criminal act. The bonus remixes of some great songs are always appreciated, but not entirely necessary. The real benefit comes from the added clarity, and being able to hear some subtleties of the recording that were unnoticeable on the older version. All told, "The Hurting" is an album that deserves to be remembered, and here's to hoping the rumored TFF reunion and new album comes to pass.

There are a lot of people who write reviews of this disc because they are tears for fears fans. But I'm not. 'Head Over Heels' and 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World,' are the only songs after this album that even hint at the brilliance of this record for me.

The Hurting is great not just as a time capsule of the '80s - popular psychology's new wave musical moment. Each of these songs is an innovative pop wingding that showers the ears with perfect sound and exhilarating craftsmanship. I don't have the remastered version, but it would be a shame to tamper with these songs, because each of them (I have them on vinyl and on CD) is perfect just the way it is.

More than just a nostalgia piece for those who lived through the era (I heard many of the songs for the first time in 2000), this is one of the great overlooked pop records, sure to be canonized by loquacious music critics in the very near future.

Am I hallucinating, or are the tracks a bit sped up from the unremastered version? The production is a bit crisper, but the speed thing makes me wanna buy back my orginal. Anyone know where I can find out? Two listenings haven't changed my mind... Also, they need to put that picture of the boy on the inside and bring back the shot of Roland and Curt by the water, which grazed the cover of the 1983 tape and vinyl, and which is now relegated to a B&W insert.

Note: Janov's work was called "Primal Therapy," not "primal scream therapy." THE PRIMAL SCREAM was just the name of his first book! This group formed to save money to go to The Primal Institute, so the rumor has it -- but they became so successful they never made it. But they garnered much insight and probably would up processing a lot of memories/feelings themselves. This is actually quite a bit more musically progressive-sounding than their follow-up album. Love it -- one of the best, most cohering records of all time.

All the songs on this cd are awsome, from the first to the last one . This band has so much to say with excellent song writing and powerful vocals. Curt and Roland's blend of vocals on "The Hurting" is exceptional. I highly recommend the record to any fan of good music and not the trendy junk of today.

After not listening to this remarkable cd for a very long time, I was prompted to return to it again after recently running into Roland in New York. What a nice fellow he was and unfortunately I was too shy to tell him what a fan I am. No matter, now that I've heard the album again I can literally not believe how amazing it is even after all these years. I can recall listening to it over and over when it first came out and how it shaped my tastes in music forever. I'd never heard anything like it and don't think I have even since. Just a teenager at that time, the only music out there was so flat and pedestrian; I still can't figure out how TFF actually came to be in the first place. With deep and compelling lyrics and thouroughly melodic arrangements, The Hurting is one of the best albums ever, even today. It makes me melancholic and nostalgic to have yet another listen and be moved each and every time.

I don't want to write ad nauseaum, but this album (no CD's when this came out) transformed me and related to my inner being in a way that only few artists/releases can. I have over 2,200 CD's, and this is easily in my top 10 rock/pop releases of all time in terms of sheer likeability, emotion, compositional quality, etc. I listen to this now in 2002, and it still floors me 19 years after it was released!!! The music is masterfully 'pop-ish', but retains an intensity and tenseness coupled to simply classy beautiful memorable songs. The result is one of the most unique and refreshing releases to date. Every song is super fantastic, with my personal faves being "The Hurting", "Mad World", "Pale Shelter", "Memories Fade", and "Watch Me Bleed". This is, quite possibly, the BEST release of the 80's!

I don't want to write ad nauseaum, but this album (no CD's when this came out) transformed me and related to my inner being in a way that only few artists/releases can. I have over 2,200 CD's, and this is easily in my top 10 rock/pop releases of all time in terms of sheer likeability, emotion, compositional quality, etc. I listen to this now in 2002, and it still floors me 19 years after it was released!!! The music is masterfully 'pop-ish', but retains an intensity and tenseness coupled to simply classy beautiful memorable songs. The result is one of the most unique and refreshing releases to date. Every song is super fantastic, with my personal faves being "The Hurting", "Mad World", "Pale Shelter", "Memories Fade", and "Watch Me Bleed". This is, quite possibly, the BEST release of the 80's!