Stephen Duffy - Kiss Me

This song is a new wave classic! "Kiss Me" is one of the most upbeat love songs of the 80s, I think. Rather than the slower sad love songs like The Thompson Twins' "Hold Me Now". I know this review is sort of short but I would just like to acknowledge this wonderful song. By the way, Stephen Duffy was in Duran Duran before his solo act...

Tears for Fears - The Hurting (1983)

Tears for Fears' album "The Hurting" seems to be one of the best debut albums of the 80s, sort of like "Please" from the Pet Shop Boys.
 Yesterday I was reading the booklet that was included with the special 1999 re-issue of "The Hurting", and as I was reading, I noticed that Tears for Fears seem to be heavily influenced by the literature of Arthur Janov. Mainly this album focuses on emotional ideas yet there is an obvious influence as to where this song writing has come from. Mostly, a lot of the songs on "The Hurting" are based on Arthur Janov's book, "The Primal Scream". Never read it - don't really care to! Anyway, "The Hurting" did very good, spawning 4 hits which where "Mad World" / "Change" / "Pale Shelter" / & "Suffer The Children". "Mad World" hit #2 in the UK charts. It was a top 10 hit in other countries. "Pale Shelter" hit #5 in the UK singles chart but was yet again a top 10 hit in other countries. "Change" received good reviews, although Curt and Roland (the face of Tears for Fears) seem to not enjoy this song. Roland says, "It's not really about much. It's just one of those cheap pop lyrics." Curt says, "A strange little pop song."
Other songs on here are very nice. Although, I would have to say that there are 2 tracks on this album I can't enjoy which are: "Ideas As Opiates" & "Memories Fade". There is a great track on "The Hurting" that I was surprised to see that it was not a single; this song is "Watch Me Bleed". There's definitely a lot of new wave on here, and probably this is one of their only new wave albums. "Songs From The Big Chair" have some new wave songs (which are ultimately the hits from that album) on there like "Shout" & their world-famous "Everybody Wants To Rule The World". As well as other songs on there like "Broken", anyway, back to "The Hurting". The album cover (as pictured on the top) was the original 1983 cover of the album. On the later re-issue of this album, they had changed the cover into a little boy sitting in a white room (as pictured below). This is a great album by Tears for Fears and is definitely one of my most favorite albums from the 80s. My favorites from here are "Pale Shelter" / "Mad World" / "Watch Me Bleed" / "Change" / "Start Of The Breakdown".
They will be playing in Hollywood soon, at a place called The Wiltern. I will be going for sure!

~ Track Listing ~
(Original Album)
01. The Hurting
02. Mad World
03. Pale Shelter
04. Ideas As Opiates
05. Memories Fade
06. Suffer The Children
07. Watch Me Bleed
08. Change
09. The Prisoner
10. Start Of The Breakdown

(1999 Re-issue)
01. The Hurting
02. Mad World
03. Pale Shelter
04. Ideas As Opiates
05. Memories Fade
06. Suffer The Children
07. Watch Me Bleed
08. Change
09. The Prisoner
10. Start Of The Breakdown
11. Pale Shelter (Long Version)
12. The Way You Are (Extended Version)
13. Mad World (World Remix)
14. Change (Extended Version)