Synopsis

The video opens with views of Earth from space before shifting to Roland Orzabal performing on a stark, dry lake bed. Alan Griffiths and Gail Ann Dorsey join him in the desert setting, while colorful studio backdrops and experimental visual treatments interrupt the location footage. The contrast between the barren landscape, cosmic imagery, and vivid artificial colors gives the performance a surreal, slightly apocalyptic atmosphere, matching the song's restless reflections on change, uncertainty, and emotional disintegration.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Break It Down Again" was released in May 1993 as the lead single from the album "Elemental."

• The video marked Tears For Fears' return as a duo-led project after Curt Smith's departure. Roland Orzabal remained the central performer, with Alan Griffiths involved in the album and video period.

• Gail Ann Dorsey appears in the performance footage. She later became widely known for her work with David Bowie, but was also part of Tears For Fears' touring lineup.

• The desert scenes were filmed at El Mirage Lake in California, the same location used for the cover photography of the single and the "Elemental" album.

• Its opening Earth-from-space imagery and deliberately experimental, low-fi visual treatment set it apart from the band's more polished, narrative-driven videos of the 1980s.

• The song became a major international hit and remains one of the defining visual statements from the post-"Songs from the Big Chair" era of Tears For Fears.