Old Enough to Be New Again: Tears For Fears, Duran Duran, Pixies, the Cure Reunite

(Roland looks a little grumpy)

Far-flung ’80s icons are returning home to roost. The new Tears For Fears album, coming out in April, is their best ever and quite possibly the adult-rock album of the year. My story on MSNBC.com:

Although it is jolting to consider that rock ‘n’ roll is 50 years old and that the Beatles first came to America 40 years ago, for me it is almost impossible to believe that the new wave era was 20 years ago – far enough down the misty road to antiquity to now be called “classic,” or as Michael Keaton put it in “Beetlejuice”: “dead, dead, deadski.” Where did the time go?

But ever-churning popular culture is only willing to let the marketable dear-departed rest in peace for so long: the ’80s are now old enough to be new again, and besides, recycling is energy efficient. As a result, a number of key artists of the period are now returning to the public eye and ear. Some are ghosts summoned by VH1’s “Band Reunited” series, which forcibly exhumed such “wavers” as Kajagoogoo, Romeo Void, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and the Alarm – all of whom are featured in a series marathon on Saturday, March 13.

….The biggest ’80s-related news of all, though, is the triumphant return of Tears For Fears – the formerly battling duo of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith – for a brilliant, expansive new album, “Everybody Loves a Happy Ending,” due in stores in April from Arista Records…..

Please click over for a review of the new album, an interview with Orzabal and Smith, and lots more juicy junk.