Album dossier / 1985

Songs from the Big Chair

Tears for Fears · Synth-pop/New Wave

Recorded largely at keyboardist Ian Stanley's home studio in Bath rather than a professional facility, giving sessions a relaxed, organic feel that producer Chris Hughes credited for the record's warmth. 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World' was written and finished in about a week almost by accident, while 'Shout' took months of iteration and was, in engineer Dave Bascombe's words, 'a pain to mix.' The album topped the Billboard 200 and hit #2 in the UK, spawning two US #1 singles ('Shout' and 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World'), and has since been enshrined in the book '1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die' and cited by Pitchfork as an album that 'manages to exude the 1980s.'