Along with the mega-platinum
Songs from the Big Chair
,
The Seeds of Love
rendered
Tears for Fears
one of the '80s most successful pop groups. The album was created during a profound period of catharsis.
Curt Smith
was going through a divorce while
Roland Orzabal
was in primal therapy. Musically, it's their most sophisticated outing, and it should be: It took four years, four producers, and over a million pounds to complete. The duo sought to distance themselves from the synth pop of their earlier records in favor of a more organic approach using live musicians. Included in this all-star cast are
Kate St. John
Jon Hassell
Robbie Macintosh
, and
Ian Stanley
.
Orzabal
began writing in 1985 with touring keyboardist
Nicky Holland
and continued in London in 1986. Their collaboration netted half the album's tracks, including "Bad Man's Song." Due to outside pressures,
Smith
's only co-writing credit is the soaring title track, though he played, sang, and advised on all charts and mixes. The album's Muse is American vocalist/pianist
Oleta Adams
caught her set in a hotel bar in 1985 and asked her two years later to duet on the transcendent album-opener "Woman in Chains." It set the tone for the entire proceeding. (The glorious drumming on the cut is by
Phil Collins
.)
Adams
also contributed gospel vocals to "Bad Man's Song," which features a
Holland
piano intro strongly suggestive of
Weather Report
's "Birdland." The presence of drummer
Manu Katche
and bassist
Pino Palladino
underscores it. The production chart for "Sowing the Seeds of Love" borrows heavily from
the Beatles
' "I Am the Walrus," but ends up as a spiritual, sociopolitical anthem in its own sonic universe.
's devastatingly beautiful refrain and the brief, seemingly errant entrance of an operatic soprano and a choir, frame the panoramic horns, strings, and Fairlight orchestrations, resulting in one of the duo's most enduring songs. On "Advice for the Young at Heart,"
's and
's vocals entwine in a melody grounded in blue-eyed soul, jazz, and elegant pop that recalls
the Style Council
Hassell
's fourth world trumpet introduces the lithe "Standing on the Corner of the Third World," clearing the way for a melody that melds
Bacharach
-esque pop to folk, rock, and chamber jazz, with riveting singing from
and
. "Swords and Knives" melds squalling prog rock guitar (a la
Robert Fripp
) to Afro-Latin polyrhythms and orchestral arrangements woven through psych-pop overtones. The rave-up rocker "Year of the Knife" is loaded with effects. Its siren-like strings provide ballast for ripping, multi-tracked guitars, samples, atmospherics, punchy drums, and a soul revue chorus. Closer "Famous Last Words" opens with ambient sounds and a lone piano as
delivers a love song about mortality.
Simon Phillips
' drumming propels wafting strings and a chorale, before they're stripped away at close. Thanks to the duo's uncompromising stubbornness, expansive creative vision, and
Dave Bascombe
's final production,
has dated better than either of its predecessors and is inarguably
' masterpiece. ~ Thom Jurek