Music / The Hurting

Is it an horrific dream? Am I sinking fast?
Could a person be so mean as to laugh and laugh?

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you cause I find it hard to take
When people run in circle it's a very very
Mad world

— "Mad World"

The Hurting is the debut studio album by English pop group Tears for Fears. It was released through Mercury Records on March 7, 1983.

A stark contrast from their later progressive pop work, this first record presents a more straightforward Synth-Pop sound influenced by the works of Peter Gabriel & Japan and often likened to the early work of Depeche Mode, although punctuated by a much darker, angstier tone (before Depeche Mode went down that road themselves) rooted in vocalists Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith's explorations of their troubled childhoods.

Formed from the ashes of the bands Graduate and Neon, Orzabal and Smith found themselves fascinated by the works of the aforementioned Depeche Mode as well as Gary Numan and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, with Orzabal describing the start of The '80s as having instigated a compelling "electronic explosion." Since the band consisted of just the two of them and the more recently-recruited Ian Stanley at that point, the ability to create full songs without the need of a full guitar-bass-drums-etc. lineup seemed to open a large number of doors, and indeed the first demos they created were enough to lead to a contract with Phonogram, Inc., who placed them under the wing of Mercury Records.

The band's first two singles, "Suffer the Children" and "Pale Shelter (You Don't Give Me Love)", failed to attract much attention, but their third attempt, "Mad World", was a much greater success, peaking at No. 3 on the UK Singles chart and instantly becoming the band's Breakthrough Hit. The producers on that track, Adam and the Ants drummer Chris Hughes and his associate Ross Cullum, were immediately brought in to work on a full album with Tears for Fears, thus leading here.

The success of "Mad World" created a good amount of anticipation for The Hurting, and indeed the album became an equally big success when it released, topping the UK Albums chart within a week and becoming the 19th best-selling album of 1983 in Britain. In the US, its success was far more modest, reaching only No. 73 on the Billboard 200, but it established enough of a cult following to pave the way for far greater success with the follow-up. The Hurting would later be certified platinum in the UK and Canada, and gold in the US.

The Hurting was supported by four singles: "Suffer the Children", "Pale Shelter (You Don't Give Me Love)", "Mad World", and "Change". The album re-recordings of the former two were also issued as singles during the album's promotional cycle.

Tracklist:

Side One

1. "The Hurting" (4:20)
2. "Mad World" (3:35)
3. "Pale Shelter" (4:34)
4. "Ideas as Opiates" (3:46)
5. "Memories Fade" (5:08)

Side Two

1. "Suffer the Children" (3:53)
2. "Watch Me Bleed" (4:18)
3. "Change" (4:15)
4. "The Prisoner" (2:55)
5. "Start of the Breakdown" (5:00)

Cassette-exclusive bonus track

1. "Change (New Version)" (4:36)

How can I be sure, when you don't give me tropes:

• Accentuate the Negative: Being an album about the singers' abusive childhoods, this album focuses on the most negative aspects of a life's development.
• Album Title Drop: Outside the Title Track, the line "When we've denied the hurting?" appears twice in "Watch Me Bleed".
• all lowercase letters: The album title is written this way on the front cover, with the tracklist on the back following suit.
• All Take and No Give: In "The Conflict" (the B-Side of "Change"), the narrator observes that he and his partner switch roles between being the Taker and the Giver, and this unhealthy dynamic creates a vicious cycle in their relationship.
  When one of us is making
  The other is taking
  There's no end to end
  When one of us is trying
  The other is lying
  There's no end to end
• Alternate Album Cover: Most releases of the album feature a cover photo of a child crying in a White Void Room, based on the "Suffer the Children" single art. Early international releases however use the photo from the "Mad World" single against a mocha-colored backdrop. The 2023 Blu-ray release would feature both covers as a reversible insert, though the outer slipcase only depicts the standard cover.
• Beneath the Mask: In "Watch Me Bleed", the narrator behaves normally on the surface, but there's great emotional turmoil underneath his calm facade.
  You see the torture on my brow
  Relates to neither here nor now
  
  Although my face is straight, it lies
  My body feels the pain and cries
  
  Here, the table is not bare
  I am full, but feeling empty
  For all the warmth, it feels so cold
  For one so young, I feel so old
  
  It's not allowed to be unkind
  But still the hate lives in my mind
  
  I'll make no noise, I'll hide my pain
  I'll close my eyes, I won't complain
  I'll lie right back and take the blame
  And try to tell myself I'm living
• Bully Magnet: In "The Hurting", the narrator is severely depressed because (among other things) he's ridiculed by a bully, and he compares it to a nightmare.
  Is it an horrific dream?
  Am I sinking fast?
  Could a person be so mean
  As to laugh and laugh?
• Camera Abuse: In the "Pale Shelter" music video, the camera lens is wet when it emerges from the pool and moves towards Orzabal, who looks blurry in the distance strumming his guitar while standing next to a tree.
• Children Are Innocent: "Suffer the Children" is centered around this topic, as Roland Orzabal elucidates in the liner notes of the 1999 remastered CD.
  Orzabal: We were really big on this at the time — we really thought children were born innocent and good and holy... When you've got kids of your own, you realize how bloody difficult it is. But it's that kind of thing — saying look at what you're doing with your child.
• Color Wash: The birthday party segment in the "Mad World" music video has a slight orangish hue to reinforce the delight of the partygoers and to further juxtapose the bleak mood of Curt Smith's character in the background.
• Concept Album: The record explores Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith's troubled childhoods.
• Conspicuous Gloves: In the "Mad World" music video, Orzabal sports a green pair of fingerless gloves while he's dancing by the dockside as seen through the window Smith is leaning against.
• The Diss Track: In "Wino" ^note the B-Side of "Suffer the Children", Roland Orzabal (who has told the media that he hates his dad) depicts his father as a pathetic loser who doesn't want to do anything but drink and smoke all day, seemingly content to die slowly from his addictions.
  You're happy dying, you don't wanna change
  Remove your fix and you feel your pain
  
  You're a wino
  A cigarette smoker
  You have a good time
  They call you a joker, don't they?
• The Dividual: "Change" is about the end of a very close friendship, and the narrator feels that he and his former friend were so emotionally attached to each other that they both lost their sense of individuality when they were together, essentially behaving like a single person.
  We walk and talk in time
  I walk and talk in two
  Where does the end of me
  Become the start of you?
• Drone of Dread: A deep, lingering synth drone underscores "The Prisoner".
• Drowning My Sorrows:
  • "Wino":
    Could you be wrong
    To choke on the smoke and the drunkenness
    Drowning in sorrow with each breath
  • "Mad World":
    Their tears are filling up their glasses
    No expression, no expression
    Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
    No tomorrow, no tomorrow
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Compared to the increasingly organic and more emotionally variable progressive pop of the band's later work, The Hurting is a relatively straightforward Synth-Pop album, with its angsty tone putting it within the realm of Goth Rock and Dark Wave. A few prog touches are here and there in the form of a unifying central concept and occasional use of Fading into the Next Song, but it's not as prominent as on succeeding records. Furthermore, Roland Orzabal's references to the Western Zodiac are absent here.
• Either/Or Title: The original version of "Pale Shelter" tacks on the parenthetical subtitle "You Don't Give Me Love".
• Extreme Close-Up: The "Change" music video ends with a freeze-frame of Curt Smith's mouth.
• Face on the Cover: The international album cover (later displaced by the UK one) features a photo of the band, recycled from the "Mad World" single release.
• Fading into the Next Song: "Mad World" fades into "Pale Shelter", while "Ideas as Opiates" segues to "Memories Fade".
• Freeze-Frame Ending: The final shot of the "Change" music video is a still of Curt Smith's mouth. He was lip-syncing the lyrics, and then the footage abruptly halts even though the music and the vocals haven't finished yet.
• Friendless Background: The narrator in "Mad World" is lonely because he's ignored by his classmates and his teachers due to his timid personality.
  Went to school and I was very nervous
  No one knew me, no one knew me
  Hello teacher, tell me what's my lesson
  Look right through me, look right through me
• Gratuitous French: "Change (New Version)" (plus its variant "Change (Canadian New Version)") contains the lyrics "C'est la vie" ("It's life" in English).
• I Am the Band: This is notably the only album where every song was composed solely by Roland Orzabal; even the "solo"-era material the band put out in The '90s was written in collaboration between the various auxiliary members.
• Idiosyncratic Cover Art: The album cover is recycled from that of "Suffer the Children", but features the photo in full color instead of black and white and alters the title logo to match the album name. Similarly, the original international cover reuses the photo from the "Mad World" single.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: In the original 1981 single version of "Suffer the Children", the verses sung by Curt Smith convey the band's rejection of the "boys don't cry" mentality.
  Hold him, tell him that you love him
  Tell him he's allowed to cry, it's alright
• Let's Duet: On the album version of "The Hurting", Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith sing all the non-chorus lyrics in unison to impart to their listeners that they both suffer from the same psychological pain. However, when performed live, Orzabal sings the final 8-verse stanza on his own.
• Limited Lyrics Song:
  • "The Prisoner" consists of a single stanza sung twice between lengthier instrumental passages.
  • The 4-minute long "The Conflict" features one stanza repeated twice.
• Lyrical Dissonance: The entire album (with the exception of "The Prisoner") juxtaposes bleak, personal lyrics with bouncy Synth-Pop tunes.
• Match Cut: In the "Pale Shelter" music video, a shot of an iron being pressed on to clothing immediately switches to a large iron-shaped imprint on a runway with jets of steam emanating from the ground.
• Meaningful Background Event: It's easy to miss if you're not paying close attention, but during the birthday party sequence in the "Mad World" music video, Curt Smith's character is at the back of the room gazing out the window instead of joining the festivity that's taking place in the foreground. It's a visual shorthand that he suffers from depression because he obviously doesn't want to socialize with anyone, preferring to sulk on his own than potentially ruining the merry mood of the guests (who don't seem to care about his emotional state).
• Minimalistic Cover Art: Simply a child weeping in the corner against a solid white backdrop, punctuated only by the band and album logotype.
• Musical Pastiche: "The Prisoner" was designed as an intentional riff on Peter Gabriel's "Intruder".
• Never Smile at a Crocodile: Near the beginning of the "Pale Shelter" music video, there's a close-up of an alligator opening its eye (it's now fully alert because it detects a potential prey nearby, so this specific shot enhances its menacing, predatory nature) before it enters a swimming pool. It then quietly approaches its target, and the woman doesn't notice the alligator until it's right next to her. She screams in terror, but the camera cuts away before the alligator (presumably) attacks her.
• Non-Appearing Title: "The Prisoner", "Ideas as Opiates" and "The Conflict".
• Non-Indicative Name: The "New Version" of "Change" included on cassette copies is actually an earlier draft of the song.
• One-Word Title: "Change" and "Wino".
• Parental Neglect:
  • "Suffer the Children" focuses on the profound loneliness that a child feels because of his absent parents.
    It's a sad affair
    When there's no one there
    He calls out in the night
    And it's so unfair
    At least it seems that way
    When you gave him his life
    
    And all this time he's been getting you down
    You ought to pick him up when there's no one around
    And convince him
    Oh just talk to him
    'cause he knows in his heart you won't be home soon
    He's an only child in an only room
    And he's dependent on you
    Oh he's dependent on you
  • The band confirmed that "Pale Shelter" is about the pain and insecurity that stems from not receiving enough (or any) warmth and affection from one's parents.
    I'm calling you, I'm calling you
    I asked for more and more
    How can I be sure
    When you don't give me love
    You gave me pale shelter
    You don't give me love
    You give me cold hands
• Perfectly Cromulent Word: The last chorus in "Mad World" slips in the line "Halargian world," an in-joke by the band about a fictional planet named Halarge. The use of this trope led to a number of listeners — including Gary Jules, who famously covered the song — to misinterpret it as "Enlarging your world."
• Pink Means Feminine: For the birthday party scene in the "Mad World" music video, the red-haired woman's dress and pom-poms are pink.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The album as a whole was based on Roland Orzabal & Curt Smith's troubled childhoods, but Orzabal specifically singles out "Start of the Breakdown" in the liner notes to the 1999 remastered CD, explaining that it was inspired by a nervous breakdown that his arteriosclerosis-addled father suffered.
• Rearrange the Song: "Suffer the Children" and "Pale Shelter" are more polished re-recordings of the band's first two singles. Similarly, "Change" is a later, more polished take on the misleadingly-named "Change (New Version)".
• Scenery Porn: The picturesque forest and lake seen in the "Mad World" music video are located in Knebworth Country Park, Hertfordshire, England. The band loved it there so much that they even brought some of their family and friends along.
  Smith: It is a dark song, but it brings back happy memories. When we made the video in a country estate on the cheap, we bussed all our friends and family up from Bath and had a fun day. The woman who's having the birthday party in the video is my mum.
• Sdrawkcab Speech: When played backwards, Roland Orzabal's hidden message at the beginning of the original 1982 single "Pale Shelter (You Don't Give Me Love)" is "The sickness in the system is an amplification of the sickness in the individual."
• Shout-Out:
  • The album's lyrics were partly inspired by the writings of Karl Marx and psychologist Arthur Janov (whose concept of primal therapy also inspired the band's name), with "Ideas as Opiates" in particular playing on Marx's quote about religion being "the opiate of the masses" by swapping out religion with, well, ideas.
  • The synth screams in the Title Track mimic the guitar wails in Peter Gabriel's "Intruder", which is imitated more thoroughly on "The Prisoner". Of note is that "The Hurting" and "Intruder" both act as the openers to their respective albums.
  • "Pale Shelter" is named after a 1941 Henry Moore drawing titled "Pale Shelter Scene", depicting families taking refuge from the Blitz during World War II.
  • In the "Pale Shelter" music video, there's a Culture Club poster in the teenage girl's bedroom.
  • At the end of the In My Mind's Eye concert film (which was included on the 2013 super deluxe box set), Orzabal's farewell to the crowd is "You've been a lovely audience, we'd like to take you home with us," which is nearly identical to the verses "You're such a lovely audience / We'd like to take you home with us" from The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
• Synth-Pop: A mostly straightforward foray into the genre; later albums would move further and further away from it as the band's style got proggier and more eclectic.
• Title Track: One opens the album.
• The Titling: The Hurting and its Title Track.
• True Blue Femininity: In the "Mad World" music video, the young girl staring sadly at a candle is garbed in a blue dress.
• Updated Re-release:
  • Cassette releases tack on "Change (New Version)"; curiously, original CD copies maintain the LP tracklist.
  • The 1999 remaster includes the 12" versions of "Pale Shelter", "The Way You Are", and "Change" as well as the "World Remix" of "Mad World" as bonus tracks.
• Unexpectedly Dark Episode: "The Prisoner" is immensely foreboding and drone-heavy compared to the danceable tone of the rest of the album, with absolutely zero Lyrical Dissonance here to offset the verbal bleakness.
• Vocal Tag Team: Vocalists Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith frequently trade off vocals throughout the album; later releases would see Orzabal become a more and more dominant presence, ultimately leading Smith to leave the band from 1991 to 2000.
• We Used to Be Friends:
  • In "Change", the narrator is upset over the loss of a profound friendship where the connection between himself and his companion was so intense that the two of them became The Dividual. Although he's aware that their relationship is now damaged beyond repair, he still wishes that his former friend would change back to the way he was so that they can be together again.
    I lost your honesty
    You lost the life in you
    
    We walk and talk in time
    I walk and talk in two
    Where does the end of me
    Become the start of you?
    When it's all too late
    It's all too late
    
    Change
    You can change
    
    What has happened to
    The friend that I once knew?
    Has he gone away?
  • In "Memories Fade", the chorus spells out that it's a failed friendship which is causing the narrator so much pain that he questions whether it's possible for him to love another person that deeply again.
    Memories fade, but the scars still linger
    Goodbye, my friend
    Will I ever love again?
    Memories fade, but the scars still linger
    
    No, don't pretend you can justify the end
    Memories fade, but the scars still linger
• White Void Room: Depicted on the cover art.
• World Gone Mad: "Mad World":
  And I find it kind of funny
  I find it kind of sad
  The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
  I find it hard to tell you 'cause I find it hard to take
  When people run in circles it's a very, very
  Mad world
• The X of Y: "Start of the Breakdown"

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Is this the start of the breakdown?
I can't understand you

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