The Hurting, the debut studio album by Tears for Fears, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. To celebrate, it will be reissued as an Abbey Road Half-Speed Mastered vinyl and as a newly created Dolby Atmos mix by renowned artist and mixer Steven Wilson.

The Dolby Atmos mix, along with a 5.1 mix, an instrumental mix, the original album master, and two previously unheard tracks, will also be released as a limited edition standalone blu-ray disc exclusively via SuperDeluxeEdition.com.

Initially released on March 7th, 1983, The Hurting featured three classic top-five hit singles: “Mad World,” “Change,” and “Pale Shelter.” The album peaked at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart in its second week of release and was certified Gold by the BPI within three weeks, staying in the charts for over a year and reaching Platinum status in early 1985.

The album also entered the Top 40 in several countries, including Canada, Germany, and Australia. The Hurting was an incredibly influential album in America, and its influence can be felt in the work of The Weeknd, Nine Inch Nails, Arcade Fire, Smashing Pumpkins, and the massive hit version of “Mad World” by Michael Andrews & Gary Jules from the cult movie Donnie Darko.

The Hurting, written solely by band member Roland Orzabal is a loose concept album focusing on themes of childhood psychological trauma and Arthur Janov’s Primal Scream therapy, the theories behind which gave the band their name. Despite its dark subject matter, the album was a huge commercial success and continues to resonate with younger audiences.

Side A:
1. The Hurting
2. Mad World
3. Pale Shelter
4. Ideas as Opiates
5. Memories Fade

Side B:
6. Suffer the Children
7. Watch Me Bleed
8. Change
9. The Prisoner
10 Start of The Breakdown

Thematically and sonically, The Hurting is an extraordinarily consistent and persuasive record, and, as such, it gives the listener the sort of cathartic experience set down in the name of the group, in spite of the almost relentlessly gloomy material on display here.

The tastefully sparse instrumentation and arrangements open up a space inside which Orzabal and Smith can play out their emotional dramas, taking the listener along with them by virtue of a series of marvelous pop hooks and winning melodies, making the experience of catharsis just what it ought to be - an uplifting rejuvenation of the spirits.

The infectious dance rhythms demonstrate that no matter how dark things can sometimes get, Tear for Fears are hardly defeatists, so there’s no need for unresolved cries of endless pain; and slivers of lyrical hope finally arrive with the lines The Prisoner is now escaping and Love sets me free in the penultimate track The Prisoner.

In addition to their hearts, on this record Orzabal and Smith wear their inspirations on their sleeves, specifically Plastic Ono Band, Joy Division, OMD, Japan, The Cure, and Gary Numan, although they take these influences and use them to form a distinct sound that is all their own.

That said, it’s actually rather difficult not to hear the influence of the sound of this landmark album on later releases such as Depeche Mode’s Construction Time Again, or The Blue Nile’s A Walk Across the Rooftops, so the musical debt has, in a sense, been repaid.

And just to make sure we are all on the same musical page here, the real star of the album is most definitely the songwriting. It could be argued that, perhaps overall, the songs on the debut are stronger than the sophomore album, but it’s likely not a popular opinion.

The opening title track sets the mood right away and it’s easily the best track not released as a single. Of course, Memories Fade and Watch Me Bleed are close contenders also, in my humble opinion.

The singles here still hold up. Mad World is the most well-known and a New Wave classic, whereas Change has a strong keyboard arrangement and is full of hooks. The two lesser known singles, the affluent Pale Shelter and Suffer the Children, are nearly as great, but melodically fall short.

Like their sophomore album, there’s no filler here thus The Hurting is a triumph of the healing nature of Art.

Speaking last year, Tears For Fears co-founder Curt Smith remarked, “We only noticed it in the last couple of years when we played Bonnaroo, which is ostensibly a far younger festival. We expected maybe a thousand people if we were lucky, and it was stretched past the tent overhang and went all the way back. I’m looking at the front of the audience, and they’re all far younger than me, and they’re all singing all the lyrics to every song from The Hurting. It was shocking to me. When you look at it retrospectively, it makes sense because the album was written when we were that age. Those lyrics resonate with a younger audience. But that was when I noticed a shift when we started playing festivals and noticed there was a younger audience we were gaining in America.”

Musically the album was informed by Roland & Curt’s shared love of Remain In Light by Talking Heads, David Bowie’s Scary Monsters And Super Creeps, David Byrne and Brian Eno’s My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, and especially Peter Gabriel’s untitled third album aka Melt.

Roland Orzabal “It’s a very consistent album with its own distinct personality. I’m not sure if we’ve made a more emotional record since, but I’d like to think we’ve hit higher musical peaks.”

The new Half-Speed Remaster of The Hurting was done by respected audio engineer Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios using a half-speed mastering technique that produces a superior vinyl cut. The Dolby Atmos mix, which remixes the album into spatial, three-dimensional audio, has been created by the artist Steven Wilson who has previously remixed Tears For Fears Songs From The Big Chair, The Seeds Of Love, and The Tipping Point into spatial audio formats.

As well as streaming, the Dolby Atmos mix will be available as a standalone blu-ray disc featuring Wilson’s Atmos Mix, his 5.1 mix, and his stereo instrumental mix as well the original 1985 stereo master and two recently rediscovered unreleased versions of ‘Mad World’ & ‘Watch Me Bleed’ produced by Mike Howlett.

Official Purchase Links