Raoul and the Kings of Spain [Bonus Tracks]

Personnel: Roland Orzabal (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Oleta Adams (vocals); Alan Griffiths (guitar, keyboards); Jeffrey Trott (guitar); Jebin Bruni (Hammond organ); Gail Ann Dorsey (bass); Brian MacLeod (drums, percussion); Mark O'Donoughue (background vocals).
Producers: Tim Palmer, Roland Orzabal, Alan Griffiths (tracks 1-7, 10-12); Roland Orzabal, Alan Griffiths (tracks 8-9).
Recorded at The Record Plant, Los Angeles, California and Neptune's Kitchen, England.
All songs written or co-written by Roland Orzabal.
Roland Orzabal has been immersing himself in near-Freudian analysis of familial relationships for over ten years. His band's harrowing debut, THE HURTING, caught people's attention, but it was the poppier, less personal SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR and the orchestrated, Beatlesque SEEDS OF LOVE that placed Tears For Fears firmly in the spotlight. Now, without Curt Smith, Orzabal continues on his journey to understanding the human condition.
RAOUL AND THE KINGS OF SPAIN is perched on the branches of familial dissatisfaction. The title track asks, "Did you know all mothers are from heaven/Did you know all fathers are from hell," and the sense of generations growing old, asking the same questions pours off the album. Orzabal's overwhelmed monologues--particularly, one of a man who can't read the news anymore ("What's the matter with your life?/Did the man come and shoot your wife/Just like you paid him")--are frighteningly familiar to our over-saturated post-modern existence.
Throughout, Orzabal's dynamic musical phrasing--from the slashing guitar on "Sorry" to the lilting hesitance of the piano on "Falling Down"--brings RAOUL AND THE KINGS OF SPAIN to a head as a collective history of our relations.
Personnel: Roland Orzabal (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Alan Griffiths (guitar, keyboards); Jeffrey Trott (guitar); Gail Ann Dorsey (bass guitar); Brian Macleod (drums, percussion); Mark O'Donoughue (background vocals).
Liner Note Author: Malcolm Dome.
The second Tears for Fears album following Curt Smith's departure finds Roland Orzabal treading water (and self-consciously deep water at that). Long removed from the simple, melodic melancholy of the band's early work and abandoning the mid-period Beatles-influenced pop, Raoul and the Kings of Spain often borders on progressive rock. There's some genuinely pretty music, like the piano-driven ballad "Secrets," with its soaring guitar line, and the gentle "Sketches of Pain." ~ Tom Demalon