For a lot of very understandable reasons, most of the albums that we deem our all-time favorites are the ones from our teens and young adult years — at the time of life when the memories associated with the music we listen to are far more intense and intertwined. It doesn’t hurt that at the stage of our lives, nearly all the songs and albums we are listening to is new to our ears, regardless of how old that material is. Therefore, it’s no coincidence that by the time you reach your mid-to-late 30s, your taste in music starts to calcify and it seems to take more energy to find new music that ends up being as meaningful to you as what you listened to in your formative years.

Therefore, it was a surprise to me that The Tipping Point quickly became the album it did in my collection. It may very well be my favorite album of this century thus far. I fell in love with it almost immediately, and the play counts in my Apple Music library show I’ve listened to it a half dozen times in the nearly four years since purchasing the CD. More than that, it led to my doing a full deep dive into the Tears for Fears catalog. Before this, I never owned a copy of The Hurting (though my wife brought her CD of it into the marriage,) and while Songs From the Big Chair was one of the first I owned on vinyl and ranks amongst my favorite ‘80s albums, at the time of its release The Seeds of Love effectively ended any additional desire to seek out any of their other material. Now, our music library contains the band’s complete discography.

I now appreciate The Seeds of Love in a way I didn’t at the time of its release, see just how amazing a debut album The Hurting was, have songs I love from their reunion album, Everyone Loves a Happy Ending, and even found some gems on the two Tears for Fears albums that were really Roland Orzabal solo efforts with the Tears for Fears name slapped on them. Yet, Songs From the Big Chair, as great as that album is, doesn’t mean as much to me The Tipping Point, which was the right album at the right time in a way that none of their other albums were. The themes, subject matter, and the music itself all just resonated and connected with me in a way that hasn’t happened since Bruce Springsteen’s The Rising.

As a result, it’s not hyperbole to suggest that Tears For Fears currently might now be my favorite band. My listening stats from my Apple Music library for the last couple years irrefutably support that notion. As for favorites off of Tipping Point, there are a few that stand out on an album that was clearly crafted to be listened to as a unified whole, and that’s how it really should be experienced. Having said that, the opening track, “No Small Thing,” is the perfect introduction — a deeply retrospective, almost mellow song that builds in complexity and intensity without letting the music get away from the lyrics. It sets the tone for an album that I recall one reviewer stating could’ve been called The Healing.

Then there’s “Break the Man,” a song clearly born out and absolutely in support of the “Me Too” movement. A successor of sorts to “Woman in Chains,” Tears for Fears clearly demonstrate that they are absolutely down with taking down the patriarchy. But the real gem on this album is “My Demons.” Its dark, pulsing energy and rhythm combined with confrontational lyrics actually brings me a kind of manic joy. On an album that’s my most listened to in years, this one really stands out. It’s been on heavy rotation since the The Tipping Point was released — the play count in my library shows 160 — and I’m nowhere close to getting sick of it. In fact, I played it again while typing this paragraph.

At the risk of writing a full-blown review, it just needs mentioning how wonderful “The Tipping Point,” “Rivers of Mercy,” (which is perfectly placed as the track following “My Demons”) and “Please Be Happy” are. 

If you told me in my teens that Tears for Fears would be the soundtrack of my middle-aged years, I almost would’ve given you a befuddled side-eye. Yet, this is where I am, and it feels absolutely right.