In 1983, Tears For Fears’ debut album, The Hurting, was released after the success of their iconic single, ‘Mad World’. Whilst embracing the popularity of synth pop, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith created an album that had a darker edge to it. Commercially it was a bold move but with memorable melodies and catchy rhythms, it paid off - all whilst making reference to the work of psychologist Arthur Janov.
In this book, music author Laura Shenton MA LLCM DipRSL offers an in depth perspective on The Hurting from a range of angles including how the album came to be, how it was presented and received at the time (live as well as on record), and what it means in terms of Tears For Fears’ legacy today.
As the author explains: Basically, the book covers how the album was made, what was going on with the music in terms of the artist’s intentions, how it did musically and commercially and what happened next.

The narrative is essentially driven by contemporary interviews with the artists with small bits of music theory where relevant… in some cases they delve into the structure / key signatures / time signatures, based on the original sheet music without straying away from being an engaging read for non-musicians.