Tears For Fears, “The Tipping Point.”

Seventeen years is a long time to wait between albums, but Tears for Fears have never been a band that did things the usual way. After gaining fame as a new wave synth band in the ’80s, they pivoted to a more organic Beatlesque sound in the ’90s. Cerebral when their peers were often silly, Tears for Fears always had an intensity that sprang partly from the yin and yang of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. The partnership fell apart in 1991, but they reunited in 2004 for Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, and sporadically toured for years afterward.

More recently, after trying to co-write songs with current hitmakers and being unhappy with most of the outcome, Orzabal and Smith scrapped the idea (and their manager). Instead, they sat together in a room playing guitars like they did when they were teens, which resulted in the title track to their new album, The Tipping Point. The LP finds Tears for Fears older and wiser, but still flexing their considerable pop muscles.

Tears for Fears’ first album, 1983’s The Hurting, was heavily influenced by the writings of Primal Scream psychiatrist Arthur Janov. Those songs reflected often on the ways in which children’s energy and enthusiasm for life are dampened by cruel parenting. Even with grown children of their own now, it seems this subject is still close to the Tears For Fears’ hearts.

“’Cause freedom is no small thing/ We punish the child for flying too high,” Orzabal sings on the first track, “No Small Thing.” Cowritten by Orzabal and Smith, “No Small Thing” starts out as a folky Lumineers-type song, with strummed acoustic guitar, and eventually devolves into something more howling and chaotic.

The title track is a highlight, a moody and foreboding tune that Orzabal said arose from his experience watching his first wife, Caroline, deteriorate and pass away due to alcoholism and related maladies. “Who’s that ghost knocking at my door?/ You know that I can’t love you more,” Orzabal sings of watching her destroy herself and waste away in a hospital bed. As in the past, heavy subject matter treated with a lyrical deftness and a catchy hook continues to be Tears for Fears’ very specific wheelhouse.

“Long, Long, Long Time” features gorgeous and haunting vocals by Carina Round (Puscifer, Twilight Singers). She sings backup on a few other songs on this album (she’s toured with TFF in the past), but this song makes the best use of her voice.

“Funny how the heart of everyone/ Is the part you’ll never know/ Funny how the heart of holding on/ Is letting go,” she sings wistfully, given center stage.

“Break the Man” recalls multiple eras of Tears for Fears in one song. It’s a feminist anthem in the vein of “Woman in Chains” with a guitar riff reminiscent of “Pale Shelter.” It’s an oddly upbeat song simultaneously about one woman and all women, having the strength to break the hold of patriarchy.

“My Demons” sounds like it could have come off of Orzabal’s 2001 solo album, Tomcats Screaming Outside, with its electronica sound and paranoid lyrics: “They will always find you when your cell phone is on/ The satellites in space that spy on us with charm and grace.” Orzabal’s lone solo outing had a definite David Bowie influence, and this track does, too.

A welcome feeling of peace comes midway through the album with “Rivers of Mercy,” a beautiful, mellow piano ballad. Written with members of their touring band, Charlton Pettus and Doug Petty, it makes use of an ethereal choral arrangement to make a plea for an end to chaos. “Wash away the pain/ Save me from the shadows,” the choir’s voices swell up behind Orzabal’s lead vocal like a stream overflowing its bank.

Curt Smith’s clear, sweet tenor shines on “Please Be Happy.” Both Orzabal and Smith demonstrate throughout The Tipping Point that they still have the pipes that brought them success, but the production on this album showcases their voices and doesn’t make the mistake of burying them in the mix. This melancholy song is sung by Smith rather than Orzabal, which is curious since the story is clearly Orzabal’s: “Please don’t worry/ ‘Cause the world won’t break apart as easy/ As the glass/ You dropped and smashed/ When you tried to climb the stairs.” Perhaps it was too much for him to sing the heartbreaking song himself.

The album runs out of steam a bit toward the end. Measured against the strength of the preceding songs, “Master Plan” and “Stay” sound like afterthoughts. The former is an almost perfunctory dig at their former manager and the latter has been floating around for a while, as it was also on Tears for Fears’ greatest hits collection in 2017, Rule the World.

The Tipping Point is a welcome return from the British pop legends. Tears for Fears may not be young enough to want to play the game of chasing hits anymore, but their maturity brings depth and richness to the album that is far more rewarding to listen to.

Follow Rachel Alm at Twitter.com/thouzenfold and Instagram.com/thousandfold.