Tears for Fears: The Tipping Point review – a challenging confrontation of grief

In Souvenir, his wonderful evocation of London between 1979 and 1985, Michael Bracewell identifies a mood of "euphoric melancholy" in the pop acts of the era, when Tears for Fears were enjoying a chart heyday. On their first album in 17 years, their melancholy isn't particularly euphoric, but a challenging confrontation of grief. "Life is cruel, life is tough," the duo sing on the title track. "Life is crazy, then it all turns to dust."

Roland Orzabal witnessed his wife disintegrating and dying. Curt Smith walked away from the project about half way in, but returned to complete a defiant album that touches upon patriarchy and other social issues in addition to the rocky road of bereavement. Musically, it's sparkling, smooth and sometimes unpredictable, laced with almost industrial electronic flourishes you'd never expect from the duo.

They still maintain that their true colours were always more apparent on their acoustic-based debut The Hurting rather than the pop blockbuster Songs from the Big Chair. The Tipping Point is somewhere in the middle, No Small Thing, Stay, and Rivers of Mercy are sensitive and revealing ballads that are placed alongside sad bangers, which is just the kind of song they do to a tee.

The Tipping Point is a meditation on what it feels to be alive and how it feels to watch someone die. It ultimately inspires and uplifts. After the darkest hour, The Tipping Point ultimately offers euphoric melancholy after all.