Everybody Loves a Happy Ending is the sixth studio album by English pop rock band Tears for Fears, released on 14 September 2004 in the United States and on 7 March 2005 in the United Kingdom and Europe.
The album marked Tears for Fears' comeback following a hiatus in the late 1990s, as well as the return of founding member Curt Smith. However, it performed modestly on the UK and US music charts compared to the band's previous records. The band focused primarily on touring in the years following Everybody Loves a Happy Ending's release, with a follow-up album not being completed until nearly eighteen years later.
Release
Work on the album began in 2000, after Orzabal and Smith ended their longstanding feud. The album was originally due for release on the Arista label, but personnel changes in the label's management (namely the departure of L.A. Reid who had signed the duo) led to the band breaking ties with the label before any music was commercially released, with the record company only pressing up a number of red vinyl promos.[3] As Orzabal and Smith own the copyright, they left Arista without having to re-record the album and struck up a number of deals to release the record with various independent/heritage record labels around the world. The album eventually surfaced in the US in 2004 when it was released on the New Door label (a subsidiary of Universal Music), and in the UK in 2005 on the British independent label Gut Records. In 2020, after Orzabal and Smith signed with Irving and Jeff Azoff's Full Stop management company the record appeared on various streaming services worldwide.
According to SoundScan figures, the album had sold 99,000 copies in the US by January 2008.[4]
At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Everybody Loves a Happy Ending has an average score of 65 based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[5]
James Christopher Monger of AllMusic gave a positive review, giving the album four stars, observing. "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending will do little to convert those who winced at Orzabal and Smith's obtuse lyrics and over the top production the first time around, but loyal followers, fans of XTC's Apple Venus, Pt. 1, and lovers of intricately arranged and artfully executed pop music will find themselves delightfully consumed by another chapter from this enigmatic group."[6] The Guardian critic Betsy Reed called it "spectacular", but she does call the "hummability factor" "nil, which matters when there's a melodic back catalogue by which to judge this album."[11] In a review for Drowned in Sound, Tom Edwards gave the album a 5 out of 10, stating "When Mansun released their debut album, 'Attack Of The Grey Lantern', back in 1997 critics accused them of sounding like Tears For Fears. I couldn't see more than a passing resemblance at the time, but listening to 'Everybody Loves A Happy Ending' this alleged similarity becomes unavoidable.", he notes that "not a total loss. To put into context, it’s a damn sight less disappointing than the new Duran Duran folly, and over time even many of the lesser tracks begin to sink in to the psyche"[10]
Despite its positive reviews, some critics have given it negative reviews such as Blender critic David Hiltbrand, who called it a "misbegotten mess", He states that "Where Orzabal’s pompous pronouncements about inner torment and the Human Condition once came with bounding New Wave hooks, they’ve now doubled their self-seriousness, dressing mediocre songs in shopworn Beatlesque flourishes", noting that "Instead of sounding clever, it comes off as dreary and dated", he ends his review by stating "In other words, it’s way warped. Sorry, fellas, but nobody loves a sad reprise."[8] In a 2 star review, Christopher Gray trashed it, stating the 12 songs on the album have "almost no room to breathe, and tend to meander in all sorts of directions", he notes that "The home-run hooks of "Shout" and "Head Over Heels" are missing in action, or at least blunted by the psychedelic haze hanging over the album like stale incense.", ending his review by stating that "This is what they came back for? Everybody loves a happy ending, sure, but only after a decent story before it".[7]
"Size of Sorrow" was written by Roland Orzabal in the 1990s and was first performed live during Tears for Fears' Elemental tour in 1993, as one of several new and unreleased songs at that time. This earlier version featured slightly different lyrics and the lead vocal was performed by vocalist/bass player Gail Ann Dorsey who was working and touring with the band at the time after the departure of Curt Smith. The studio version, as heard on this album, was sung by Smith.
"Who You Are" is the first original song released by Tears For Fears to not credit Orzabal as a writer. A different version of the song appears on Curt Smith's solo album Halfway, Pleased, released in 2007.
"Ladybird" quotes the English nursery rhyme "Ladybird Ladybird" in its chorus. It was the first collaboration between Smith and Orzabal since the split. Smith had presented the chorus to Orzabal, who wrote a verse to it. The first song written entirely together for the album was "Closest Thing to Heaven".[17]
Bob Becker, Denyse Buffman, Roland Kato, Carole Mukogawa, Karie Prescott and Evan Wilson – viola
Charlie Bisharat, Eve Butler, Mario DeLeon, Joel Derouin, Julian Hallmark, Armen Garabedian, Berj Garabedian, Norm Hughes, Peter Kent, Michael Markman, Robert Matsuda, Sid Page, Sandra Park, Sara Parkins, Bob Peterson, Lesa Terry, Josefina Veraga and John Wittenberg – violin
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