I have a problem with bands which were once a duo, breaking up
\nand a sole member carrying on with the original band name. It just
\ngoes against my grain. To me, this behavior represents the ultimate
\nin cashing in on previous success. And I kind of feel gypped buying
\nan album only to discover it contains half product, so to
\nspeak.<\/p>\n
The band Tears For Fears is now a moniker for Roland Orzabal’s
\nsolo efforts. The dynamic of the duo is missing and it shows. Not
\nthat Kurt Smith was a musical genius (Orzabal was the principle
\nsongwriter) or that his pretty face could out shine Orzabal’s stage
\npresence. It’s just that together they were so much more. Orzabal
\nprobably brought out Smith’s abilities and Smith probably tempered
\nOrzabal’s self-inflation tendencies.<\/p>\n
\nElemental<\/i> was the first release after the schism. A mediocre
\nalbum with a few high points and a definite low point. This work
\nlacks the giddying heights in production we experienced in
\nSongs From The Big Chair<\/i> and Orzabal’s songwriting skills
\nhave gotten a little rusty.
\nElemental<\/i> is an album filled with social commentary cum
\nmoralistic soapbox preaching. It gets old real fast and you find
\nyourself asking “Just who in the hell does Orzabal think he
\nis?”<\/p>\n
Nowhere is this more evident then on the song “Fish Out Of
\nWater.” Here Orzabal takes valuable album space to air the dirty
\nlaundry between him and Smith. I hate to get involved in others
\nsquabbles and the last thing I need is to hear someone’s side of
\nthe story set to lackluster music. Hey, Roland, couldn’t you have
\njust written Kurt a letter and spared us all?<\/p>\n
On the songwriting front: Some of these songs are just
\nincomprehensible no matter which way you slice ’em. For instance,
\nin “Dog’s A Best Friend’s Dog,” Orzabal sings: “Three is a crowd \/
\nTwo is a dog and me playing \/ (What’s he saying) \/ Free as a cloud
\n\/ No one ever really knew you \/ Make clear your illusion no, no,
\nno.” The words in parentheses represent a backing chorus. Seems
\neven the back-up singers were having interpretation problems.<\/p>\n
To be fair, there are some pleasant moments on the album. “Cold”
\nand “Break It Down Again” offer up some catchy melodies. The warmth
\nof “Brian Wilson Said” stands out among the rest of the songs.
\nThough Orzabal apes the Beach Boy sound he still leaves enough room
\nfor his own style to show through. The rest of the album, though,
\nis basically filler, songs with no glimmer of inspiration.<\/p>\n
There is a rumor that Orzabal will soon be recording under his
\nown name. I say, Amen! It’s high time this nonsense ended. Perhaps
\nwith the change will come a fresh approach to song writing and he
\ncan achieve success in his own right and not with the name of a now
\ndefunct duo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":25395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6318],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-36601","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tears-for-fears","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36601"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}