TEARS FOR FEARS | SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR
Songs From The Big Chair is a luscious and grand affair. It is all depth and drama on the heels of pop sensibility. It still remains a snapshot of the mid-80’s zeitgeist, a dreamy and classic pop album.
Opener “Shout” captures the humid tone of the entire album, drippy and robust. “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” is a stomach punch of retro-nostalgia disguised as an accessible pop song. Everything feels bombastic and robust, thick and heady. The musical production style of the 80’s was all reverb drapery and studio processing, which is why Songs From The Big Chair so accurately captures the era’s essence.
“The Working Hour” is pure pleasure, sax lines, bongos, and compressed piano folding together over a midnight city scene. The reverb-soaked vocals and despondent melody skyrocket like fireworks of forlorn reminiscence. These are the 80’s vibes at their most concentrated and what so many artists love about the era.
Modern acts like the 1975 continue to play off of the filtered memories of albums like this, and there’s an entire genre of music dedicated to the washed out VHS sound of the Reagan era. It’s nice to revisit the real thing in the wake of all the carbon copies trying to re-create the original neon roar of what the 1980’s represented.
It’s all open and honest work, heroic and sophisticated. “Head Over Heels” remains one of the catchiest piano and guitar lines ever written. It’s simultaneously mournful and exuberant at the same time. The chorus falls onto the the root chord in a festival of opaque ecstasy, while the outtro’s “la la la’s” steer clear of being cheesy and end up dazzling.
Songs From The Big Chair isn’t perfect, but it is a perfectly captured place in time, dripping with syrupy melody and big ideas. It’s ludicrously poppy and inventively genius
Head Over Heels
2.5 oz vodka
1 oz Frangelico hazelnut liquer
1 oz creme de cacao
1 tbl honey
1 tbl almond spread
pinch of ground cinnamon
*Shake all ingredients with ice. Stain into a bottle with a tight fitting lid and place in a freezer for 15 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes, then strain into a chilled martini glass and serve. Garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon and cocoa powder.