10 Perfect Pop Albums Of The 1980s
3. Songs from the Big Chair - Tears for Fears
As the decade started to really hit its stride, the pop market had seemed to forgotten the definition of the word subtle. From one video to the next, it was always about putting some of the most over the top artists in the world into the prime time, the weirder the better. In between all of the mile high hair and pop fluff on the air, Tears for Fears actually made their biggest hit through the power of pure melodrama.
Before we get into this, this isn't melodrama in the goth kind of way. While Songs From the Big Chair might have a dark slant every now and again, these are still meant to be pop songs, breaking out the synthesizers and layering one beautiful keyboard on top of another to create their tunes. Compared to the tight grooves on most other pop albums at the time, songs like Shout and Everybody Wants to Rule the World practically feel operatic in scope, as Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal's baritone vocals get more and more emotional on every other song.
For all of the personality in these songs, you can also hear the humanity behind everything, with the slightly out of tune vocals and nastiness behind some of the synth and guitar tones. It might not all fit that well when you hook it up to the grid these days, but you don't always need everything in tune for it to sound immaculate.