Songs From The Big Chair

This review has been a long time coming. 34 years in fact, but you can never rush a good job. Very much like this album which took a long time to put together considering it was made in the flashy 80's when pop groups knew they had a finite amount of time to make as bigger impact as possible. Tears For Fears made a huge impact but with less a body of work than most. They managed 3 albums across the decade where Duran Duran managed 6, Eurythmics had 7 and Simple Minds had 7 (and 9 in a 10 year period). But what an album! This one alone had possibly three of the best singles not just for the group, or 'a' group in the 80's but three of the best of all time; Shout, Everybody Wants To Rule The World and Head Over Heels. I would argue Mothers Talk is up there too as when I bought this album that was my favourite (and prefer the US single mix even more so now). Ah yes, 'when I bought this album'. Speaking as a soon to be 43 year old, I look back on this album as the one that kick started my love for music. I had listened to my dad's The Who and Ultravox records and my mums singles from the 70's (hello Bee Gee's and Hot Gossip!) but this was the first album I purposefully went out and spent my money on. I knew Shout and Everybody.. from the radio and Top Of The Pops but I wanted more.... ...And I was 9. I don't want to get too highfalutin, but this was pretty impressive music for a 9 year old to buy when I could have opted for something a little more age appropriate, like Radio Ga Ga ;) I still remember the day clearly. A Saturday morning with my dad in Debenham's record department (remember that??). Anyway, an album very much of the 80's and sounds like it, but strangely still relevant nearly 35 years on. You can hear Tears For Fears in current bands like Bastille, White Lies and Imagine Dragons and with some good choices for placements in movies, come with a natty nostalgia factor. Songs From The Big Chair started it all for me and remains one of my favourite albums. I don't tend to use the word masterpiece very often as everything is open to opinion, taste, timing, fashion etc, but Songs From The Big Chair is just that; a masterpiece.

Bought this for my teen as she has recently discovered them and loves them, which is amazing as I loved them when I was a teen. Just goes to show how timeless their songs are. Every song is a winner.

This is a review of the remastered CD with additional tracks. I was there in 1985 as a twenty-year-old fan who considered - and still considers - this to be one of the best albums of the decade. There are no duff tracks, and the hits `Shout', `Everybody Wants to Rule the World', and `Head over Heels' are each worthy of five stars on their own. The generous sleevenotes give further background information to the origins and development of "that difficult second album." I cannot say that I understand the gist of all the lyrics on the album, but they are sung with great conviction. Concepts about mothers and about the nature of belief are prominent. These were also present in thirst first album, but now the tracks themselves are given space to grow and mature. As well as the brilliant production and superlative arrangements, the duo and their producer Chris Hughes showed imagination as well in their track-listing. It was a good decision to open side two with a ballad, for instance, and the return of `Broken' at the end of `Head over Heels' is like the recapitulation of a symphonic movement. The eighth and last track brings the set to an unexpectedly confident conclusion. With reference to the extras, these largely comprise the early building blocks of many of the tracks, as well as a couple of remixes. None of these bonus tracks are particularly worthy in themselves.

It might've needed a better title all along ,but the music was so good it doesn't matter .

fantastic music

This is how Blu Ray Audio discs should be presented.At last Universal are listening and giving the people who buy high resolution audio a classic album specially created in both stereo and 5.1 surround by the master Steven Wilson and it sounds superb.This is the treatment that `The Hurting' should have had.On the down side it doesn't have any extra tracks or rarities which were included in the Deluxe CD version (why not I ask) but it has informative liner notes about the album and notes from Steven Wilson about the surround mix.It also comes with a coupon allowing you to download a digital version of the album. So if you have a decent surround system and like this album you will not be disappointed.Get it before they stop making it.

Excellent quality and delivery time. Thank you.

Great band , their best album hands down , bought used for a bargain price but it’s like brand new , happy customer

Edição simples, sem encarte.

Tears For Fears managed to do an amazing thing with their second album. They had three of the biggest international pop hits of the decade in rapid succession in 1985. But instead of putting them in an album of easy to like pop songs, they placed them in an a serious and complex album that explored darkness and ambiguity and one that was challenging to normal expectations as well. How many artists would follow an exuberant and joyful number like Head Over Heels with a long, bleak, mostly instrumental number like Listen, which sounded more like something from Pink Floyd or the Alan Parsons Project? But this was what made Tears For Fears a step above many other recording artists of their day. In an age of frivolity they came on with an earnestness and seriousness of purpose which was rare. Their first album, The Hurting, was absolutely bleak, a raw exploration of Roland and Curt’s troubled childhoods that included the original version of Mad World. Early critics were quick to dismiss them as just another synth-pop band, and a mopey one at that, but it was clear to the public that there was more to them and the album reached #1 in Britain and produced three big hits in 1983. For some reason the American audience didn’t take to them at at first, whether because the songs were too dark or from poor promotion by the label I don’t know. Songs From the Big Chair was a giant leap forward for the band in every way. The first album really was almost all synth and drum machine, even if in service to dark lyrics. Here, to multiple synthesizers and drum machines they added real drums, multiple guitars, saxophone, and organ in many layers of sound. There’s layers upon layers of things going on in the new sound of Tears For Fears, especially in numbers like Shout, The Working Hour and Head Over Heels. The music is more flowing and loose as well with jazz and R&B influences. Often it seems like they are accompanied by a great righteous noise, a swelling of instruments and sounds rather than instruments playing a melodic line. This would be the basis of their sound which would go even further into jazz and soul in the next album. At this point Tears For Fears was a real touring band and Ian Stanley and Manny Elias were considered part of the group though Roland and Curt obviously occupied a more forward position. They had the ability to recreate all of their music live just like it was on the album, though this needed an extra guitarist, keyboardist and saxophone. Ian was very important to the band at this time, and I don’t think he gets all the credit he deserves. Not only did he offer Roland and Curt free use of his studio, but even this late, most of this album was made there with producer Chris Hughes. He was important in creating the sound and at least gets some writing credits here. Songs From the Big Chair is not quite a concept album, but it does seem thematically united. The lyrics are often a bit oblique and open to interpretation, but they often seem to he lost in indecision. The songs’ protagonist is unsure whether to believe everything will work out, or, as he also says, “I believe that it’s too late for anyone to believe.” If he cries while he writes the words is it absurd or real? The album is full of moments like “Find out, find out, what the fear is all about” in The Working Hours and “ I stop believing everything will be alright” in Broken. Yet the final lyric (in Spanish) of the album translates as “Birthday girl, everything will be alright”. It’s not unusual for Tears For Fears that a dark or cynical lyric is cloaked in a bright melody. Pale Shelter (from The Hurting) sounds dynamic and upbeat despite its bitter words. The cynicism of Everybody Wants To Rule the World sounds like fun in its loping, flowing rhythm and big chorus. Shout is full of anger but also hope that at least you can let it out and is positively hypnotic with its solid chant and its huge sound that keeps getting bigger. Tears For Fears was more about the sound to me than the lyrics anyway, which I usually had to see printed out to fully understand. The sound of Tears For Fears is usually very spacious, full of reverb, the musical equivalent of Big Sky Country. This is true whether it’s dark and deep like Shout or high and straining for the heavens like Head Over Heels. The Working Hour is beautifully realized with its percussion and saxophones and has a pleading sound close to songs from The Hurting like Start of the Breakdown. Will Gregory’s saxophone is a very important part of the song and makes it different than any previous song of theirs. Mother’s Talk is more of a rhythm piece without the strong melody that is usual for the group. It was a minor hit in the U.K. and in the U.S. in a remixed version. It seems like a bit of a throwback to The Way You Are. I Believe is a quietly jazzy meditation on uncertainty that could almost work as lounge music if it had a more typical love lyric. The album’s finale is a trilogy of songs of wildly different moods played without a real break with Broken and Head Over Heels sharing melodic material. Broken is fast, frenetic and jagged, and a bit like something Yes might do. It includes the theme which opens Head Over Heels while Heels ends with a repeat of Broken’s central section; they also share the line, “Funny How Time Flies” This is something more prog-rock than synth-pop or new wave and this tying together of the three songs was usually kept together in live performances. Then comes the real surprise. Instead of a big, positive anthem of a song, Listen is a bleak, almost minimalist instrumental riff which includes a brief opening lyric referring to an atomic war in Russia sung to jazz chords. This was a really gutsy way to end an album. I’m sure the label execs must have argued against it. But that’s Tears For Fears, always full of surprises. It’s rare that an album this creative is as popular as Songs From the Big Chair. It was the album of the summer in 1985, sold five million copies in the U.S. alone and about ten million worldwide.This CD was remastered in 2014 and sounds great. The sound is full of detail, something necessary for the group’s music. No bonus tracks but those are often just outtakes. There is a deluxe 2-CD version but it’s selling for a fortune at the moment. This is all you really need.

Sonido con buena fidelidad, grandes exitos y en general todas las canciones con un estilo que sorprende gratamente.

Rund zwei Jahre nach "The hurting" veröffentlichten "Tears for fears" am 25.02.1985 ihr zweites Album. Gegenüber dem zurückhaltenden, beinahe introvertierten Erstling wurde der Nachfolger instrumentell stark ausgebaut und ist melodisch deutlich massentauglicher. Der Erfolg war durchschlagend: "Songs from the big chair" erreichte in mehreren Ländern die Spitze der Charts, darunter auch in den USA, und konnte teilweise sehr lange Verweilzeiten in den jeweiligen Hitlisten erreichen. Mit bis heute über zehn Mio. Verkauften Exemplaren ist es das mit Abstand erfolgreichste Album der Band. Stilistisch wird "Songs from the big chair" im Allgemeinen dem Synthie-Pop zugeordnet. Dieser Einschätzung kann man insgesamt durchaus zustimmen und unter Annahme dieser Zuordnung stelle ich für mich fest, dass der Longplayer zu den Spitzenerzeugnissen dieses Genres zählt. Dennoch unterschiedet es sich signifikant von vielen seiner gleichaltrigen Zeitgenossen. Verglichen mit Alben von "A-ha", "Alphaville" oder "Depeche mode" ist "Songs from the big chair" wesentlich rauer und kraftvoller. Instrumentell besteht ein gleichberechtigtes Nebeneinander von Gitarren, Saxophon, echten Drums und Synthies. Während Erstere Struktur und Rhythmus liefern, werden die Synthies vor allem zur Erzielung von Raumwirkung genutzt. In gewisser Weise bildet "Songs from the big chair" alle positiven Facetten des 80-er-Jahre-Synthiepops ab: Kraftvolle, treibende Melodik, Sinnlichkeit und Verzagtheit, raue Eleganz sowie interessante Lied-Strukturen. Bevor es nun an die Bewertung der Titel geht: Ich habe ein Exemplar aus den 80-ern vorliegen, kann also über eventuelle Klangunterschiede der Remastered-Versionen sowie die dort zusätzlich vorhandenen Titel nichts sagen. Einen Klangvergleich konnte ich bei "Rio" von Duran Duran ziehen. Dort schienen, wie auch von einigen Rezensenten angesprochen, bestimmte Klangnuancen im verstärkten Bass der neuen Abmischung unterzugehen. "Shout" dürfte der bekannteste Titel des Albums sein und zieht gleich zum Auftakt alle Register. Zwar erscheint es strukturell einfach, ist jedoch melodisch überaus schön und durch die perfekte Instrumentierung extrem kraftvoll. Das Klangbild wirkt rau, komplex, treibend, dabei herrlich präzise und doch keinesfalls rein-elektronisch. Die Stimme dominiert nicht, sondern ist in die Instrumente eingebettet. Sehr schön ist die Spannungssteigerung, für die das lange Gitarren-Zwischenspiel ein wesentliches Element ist. Die verglichen zur Single-Version deutlich längere Spielzeit gibt "Shout" Zeit, um sich zur vollen Erhabenheit zu entfalten. Nach diesem Giganten scheint Einhalt notwendig. "The working hour" nimmt die Kraft des Openers heraus und ersetzt diese durch eine sehr subtile Spannung, die im Verlauf steig gesteigert wird. Interessant ist die Struktur des Titels: Einer sehr langen instrumentellen Einführung folgen Strophe/Refrain/Zwischenspiel/Refrain. Die Melodie ist sehr schön und vermittelt eine hohe Eindringlichkeit. Die Instrumentierung ist sehr elektronisch, wobei ein Saxophon einen schönen Kontrast zu den Synthies setzt, und schafft so einen herrlichen Kontrast zum Vorgänger. "Everybody want's to rule the world" erscheint im Vergleich zu seinen Vorgängern sehr konventionell. Dennoch ist es melodisch schön, sehr gut instrumentiert und hat alles, was ein Chartstürmer zur damaligen Zeit haben musste. Entsprechend hoch war der internationale Erfolg. Hervorzuheben ist die subtile Steigerung der Spannung und das geschickte Überleiten zum Nachfolger. "Mothers talk" zieht das Tempo deutlich an und ist in seiner Gesamtheit deutlich kraftvoller. Zwar ist die Melodik verglichen mit anderen Titeln des Albums sehr stark zurückgesetzt, jedoch mehr als ausreichend. Schnell, treibend, elegant und…"cool", ist "Mothers Talk" durch genau den melodischen Kontrast ein wichtiger Teil des Albums und war auch die richtige Wahl für eine Single-Auskopplung. Nach diesen vier akustischen Schwergewichten erscheint ein Atemholen notwendig. "I believe" nimmt die Energie der Vorgänger heraus und führt in völlige Entspannung. Die wunderschöne Melodie wird lediglich von Klavier und Saxophon getragen; erst zum Ende kommen einige Synthies hinzu, die vor allem als Überleitung fungieren. So fragil und in sich gekehrt, fungiert "I believe" einerseits als Ruhepol und ist zugleich ein Atemholen zum folgenden "Broken", das eine Einheit mit seinem Nachfolger bildet. "Broken" beginnt mit rauen Synthies, die das Tempo wieder anziehen und das sehr lange Intro einleiten. Dieses ist durch kurze Zwischenspiele strukturiert, wobei Stimmung und Spannung mit jedem neuen Abschnitt durch das Hinzukommen neuer Instrumente gesteigert wird. Erst nach rd. 100 Sekunden setzt Gesang ein, der den Beginn des Höhepunktes markiert. Melodisch ist "Broken" schön, stimmungsvoll und äußerst elegant. Sehr geschickt wird dann zu "Head over heals" übergleitet, das melodisch wie eine Fortsetzung wirkt. Tempo und Spannung werden herausgenommen, man scheint vom Diffusen in Klare zu treten. Am Höhepunkt agieren mehrere Stimmen, die die zelebrierte Eindringlichkeit wunderbar unterstützen. Wie um den Kreis zu schließen, folgt ein kurzes Fragment von "Broken". Das abschließende "Listen" nimmt Kraft, Dramatik und Aggressivität der Vorgänger völlig heraus und scheint in die Unendlichkeit zu weisen. Leichte Synthie-Klänge fungieren als Einleitung. Zwar hat der Titel nur drei Themen, jedoch sind diese melodisch ausnehmend schön, wunderbar instrumentiert und sehr geschickt miteinander verbunden. Wieder wird die Stimmung zum Ende hin subtil gesteigert, bis mit wenigen Tönen alles ins Nichts aufgelöst wird. Ein toller Abschluss für ein exzellentes Album. "Songs from the big chair" ist ein hervorragendes Album, das einerseits sehr rau-elektronisch klingt, aufgrund der Instrumenten-Kombination jedoch erstaunlich zeitlos erscheint. Dementsprechend ist es nicht nur Liebhabern elektronischer Klänge, sondern jedem nicht Genre-gebundenen Hörer dringend zu empfehlen.

I finally managed to get a copy of this vinyl! So hard to find it here in Singapore. Item arrived flawlessly in brand new condition. Very well packed and the price is really good. Highly recommended.