''Tomcats Screaming Outside'' is the only solo studio album by British musician

Roland Orzabal Roland Orzabal (born Roland Jaime Orzabal de la Quintana; 22 August 1961) is a British musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, and author. He is best known as a co-founder of Tears for Fears, of which he is the main songwriter and joint v ...

from the band

Tears for Fears Tears for Fears are an English pop rock band formed in Bath, England, in 1981 by Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith. Founded after the dissolution of their first band, the mod-influenced Graduate, Tears for Fears were associated with the new wav ...

, and was released on 2 April 2001. Although Orzabal had made two albums solely with

moniker in the 1990s (following the departure of bandmate

Curt Smith Curt Smith (born 24 June 1961) is a British singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and co-founding member of the pop rock band Tears for Fears along with childhood friend Roland Orzabal. Smith plays bass guitar, has co-written several ...

), ''

Elemental An elemental is a mythic being that is described in occult and alchemical works from around the time of the European Renaissance, and particularly elaborated in the 16th century works of Paracelsus. According to Paracelsus and his subsequent fo ...

'' and ''

Raoul and the Kings of Spain ''Raoul and the Kings of Spain'' is the fifth studio album by British pop rock band Tears for Fears, released on 10 October 1995 by Epic Records. Like the band's previous album, ''Elemental'' (1993), it is essentially a solo effort by Roland Or ...

'', this was the first recording to be released under his own name.

Background

In a 2000 interview, Orzabal commented on his influences for the album: "I started out with an absolute concrete vision of where I wanted to go so I started with a very different rhythm approach, with drum and bass/

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''jaṅ ...

...and I ended up with something that wasn't the original plan." This album was Orzabal's last to feature contributions from

Alan Griffiths Alan Gordon Griffiths (born 4 September 1952), is a former Australian politician who represented the Division of Maribyrnong for the Australian Labor Party from March 1983 to January 1996. Griffiths was a senior Minister in the Hawke and Keatin ...

, who co-wrote most of the tracks on this album as well as the previous two Tears for Fears albums. The album was given a low-key release and did not chart, but earned some critical acclaim for its clever melding of pop songwriting and

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

ambient techno Ambient techno is a subgenre of techno that incorporates the atmospheric textures of ambient music with the rhythmic elements and production of techno. It was pioneered by 1990s electronic artists such as Aphex Twin, Carl Craig, the Black Dog, Pe ...

and

trip hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...

textures. Dan Gennoe claimed in

Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...

's editorial review: "Solo album or not, ''Tomcats Screaming Outside'' is the best Tears for Fears album in a decade." An outtake demo from the album's sessions, "Deep Seeded Blindness", has been made available online. The US release of the album (on Gold Circle Records) had the unfortunate coincidence to be released on September 11, 2001 the same day the United States experienced its worst-ever terrorist attack, and drew little notice outside Tears for Fears' core fan base.

Track listing

All songs written by Roland Orzabal/Alan Griffiths, except where indicated. # "Ticket to the World" – 5:48 # "Low Life" – 4:36 (Orzabal) # "Hypnoculture" – 3:13 (Orzabal) # "Bullets for Brains" – 4:08 # "For the Love of Cain" – 4:06 (Orzabal) # "Under Ether" – 5:51 # "Day By Day By Day By Day By Day" – 4:35 # "Dandelion" – 3:03 # "Hey Andy!" – 4:25 (Orzabal) # "Kill Love" – 5:40 # "Snowdrop" – 4:23 # "Maybe Our Days Are Numbered" – 4:47

Singles

"Low Life" was the first single from the album. Plans to release the single in the UK were scrapped at the last minute, although it did see a commercial release in mainland Europe. "Low Life" was also played in the US on adult alternative radio. "For the Love of Cain" was planned as the second single release from the album, but it was cancelled since the first single had no chart success in Germany. Only a limited number of copies were sold through Orzabal's official website. *"Low Life" (12 March 2001) :#"Low Life" (Album Version) – 4:37 :#"Low Life" (Supersub Mix) – 4:58 :#"Low Life" (President Who? Mix) – 4:50 :#"Low Life" (Radio Edit) – 4:07 *"For the Love of Cain" (August 2001) :#"For the Love of Cain (Radio Edit) – 3:33 :#"Day By Day By Day By Day By Day" (Album Version) – 4:35 :#"Low Life" (Album Version) – 4:37 :#"Low Life" (Video) – 4:35

Personnel

- guitar, keyboards, programming, vocals *Alan Griffiths - guitar, keyboards, programming *David Sutton - bass *

Nick D'Virgilio Nicholas D'Virgilio (born November 12, 1968), often referred to as NDV, is an American drummer, singer and guitarist, best known as a member of the progressive rock band Spock's Beard. He was also one of two drummers chosen to replace Phil Coll ...

- drums ; technical staff : *Mark O'Donoughue - engineer, mixing *Curtis Evans - design

References

External links

Interview with Orzabal in September 2000
published in Lexicon Magazine and Sorted Magazine {{Authority control 2001 debut albums Drum and bass albums Eagle Records albums