New studio album • Limited edition SDE-exclusive CD with bonus tracks • Signed CDs • Limited coloured vinyl. First album in 17 years • SDE exclusive CD

arly in 2022, Tears For Fears will release The Tipping Point, their first studio album in over 17 years. Furthermore, SDE is pleased to announce that, in collaboration with the band and their record label (Concord Music), we are taking pre-orders (via the SDE shop) for a unique global exclusive deluxe CD edition which features three bonus songs. This will not be available anywhere else (including in Japan and America!).

Seven years in the making, and well into their fifth decade as collaborators and friends, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith have defied the odds, seen off the doubters, jumped around between record labels, changed management, naval-gazed, almost split up again, ditched the first version of the new album and have come back with a superb 10-track record that embraces the strengths of each band member and most importantly sounds like Tears For Fears!

SDE has heard the whole album and can confirm that The Tipping Point is full of brilliant pop songs that traverse darkness and light and at times chart both personal and global crises. The title track is the first single and you can preview this below.

Roland Orzabal says, “Before everything went so right with this album, everything first had to go wrong, it took years, but something happens when we put our heads together. We’ve got this balance, this push-me-pull-you thing – and it works really well.” Curt Smith agrees, “If that balance doesn’t work on a Tears For Fears album, the whole thing just doesn’t work. To put it in simple terms, a Tears For Fears record and what people perceive to be the sound of Tears For Fears – is the stuff we can both agree on.”

The band had initially started writing the new record with some of today’s hit songwriters (2017’s ‘I Love You But I’m Lost’ was co-written with Bastille’s Dan Smith and Mark Crew) which was an idea suggested by Tears For Fears previous management and what Roland and Curt pithily refer to as “speed dating”. This did not work out. Orzabal explains that “Eventually, that pressure and tension divided us not just from our management, but from one another too”.

But Tears For Fears regrouped and changed their management. The new team subsequently raved about the five songs Roland and Curt could agree on and with new purpose and inspiration they completed the album, which is largely produced by Orzabal, Smith and Charlton Pettus, although producers and songwriters Sacha Skarbek and Florian Reutter contribute to a few songs.

Album highlights include the disarming opener ‘No Small Thing’ which takes the listener on a journey from campfire acoustics to full on TFF widescreen production; the pure pop of ‘Break The Man’; the irresistible stomper that is ‘My Demons’, the plaintive and soulful ‘Rivers of Mercy’ and the rueful ‘End of Nights’. The album closes with ‘Stay’, one of the tracks first included on the Rule The World greatest hits in 2017 (there’s no sign of ‘I Love You But I’m Lost’, the other new song on that compilation).

The Tipping Point Green Vinyl LP

Side A

1. No Small Thing
2. The Tipping Point
3. Long, Long, Long Time
4. Break The Man
5. My Demons

Side B

1. Rivers of Mercy
2. Please Be Happy
3. Master Plan
4. End Of Night
5. Stay

The standard 10-track version of The Tipping Point is available on CD, black vinyl LP and limited indie green vinyl. The retail deluxe CD features one bonus song, the Target (USA) and Japanese editions will have two bonus songs but only the SDE deluxe CD offers all three bonus songs on one physical package! Viva la CD! 

The Tipping Point Green SDE-exclusive CD

1. No Small Thing
2. Tipping Point
3. Long, Long, Long Time
4. Break The Man
5. My Demons
6. Rivers of Mercy
7. Please Be Happy
8. Master Plan
9. End of Night
10. Stay

Bonus Tracks

1. Let It All Evolve
2. Secret Location
3. The Shame

Additionally, the SDE deluxe CD offers enhanced packaging (8-panel digi-sleeve) and a 32-page booklet (the standard has 24 pages) which exclusively features a new interview with Roland and Curt by SDE editor Paul Sinclair. 

Be aware that the SDE deluxe CD is a limited edition. There are just 2,000 units available for the UK and the Rest of the World and this is a one-time pressing. Once they are gone, that’s it!

Amazon in the UK are also offering signed CDs, although note that these are the standard 10-track edition.

The Tipping Point will be released on 25 February 2022, via Concord Music.