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Tears for Fears Cover Arcade Fire’s ‘Ready to Start’ With Orchestral IDM

Tears for Fears, Arcade Fire, "Ready to Start," cover

Tears for Fears announced their cover of Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs surge “Ready to Start” by invoking their own experiences with interpolation. The U.K. synth-pop vets wrote, “Having appreciated artists like Kanye West, Katy Perry, Kimbra, Nas, Gary Jules/Michael Andrews, Adam Lambert & Dizzee Rascal covering & sampling our songs over the past years, we agreed that some reciprocal cross-generational love was in order.” 

This version of “Ready to Start” is most interesting for how it channels the impassioned rock anthem through a range of styles almost as varied as the artists who’ve reworked Tears for Fears. (Also: WaleTed Leo.) Sparse orchestral sections run into blippy IDM bits, and there’s a brief, spiky post-punk breakdown. A couple of lyrics are slightly different, but chalk that up to interpretation.

As Slicing Up Eyeballs notes, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith have been working on a follow-up to 2004’s Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, and a box set commemorating the 30th anniversary of debut The Hurting is due out on October 21 via Universal Music. 

Tears for Fears’ latest cover subjects aren’t resting on their laurels, either. Arcade Fire’s new album, possibly titled Reflektor, arrives on October 29 via Merge. (Check out our feature Merge Country: How Superchunk’s Label Turned Durham Into a Thriving Indie-Rock Company Town). They’re also covering Peter Gabriel for an upcoming compilation and contributing music to a Spike Jonze movie. As for live dates, Arcade Fire are co-headlining Australia and New Zealand’s multi-city Big Day Out Festival with Pearl Jam and Blur.