TEARS FOR FEARS - SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR (1985) POLL

See, I knew the photo I tried to post would fuck up. I knew it.

― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 08:31 (4 years ago) Permalink

― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 08:34 (4 years ago) Permalink

― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Saturday, 9 August 2008 08:40 (4 years ago) Permalink

Hahahahhahahhahah you know me too well Mr. Yuro!

― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 09:07 (4 years ago) Permalink

Ok I'm gonna have to revisit this one. I think I was pretty overwhelmed by it in my naive youth. Perhaps I had a relatively sheltered musical upbringing but I seem to recall thinking it was the one of most bombastic and detailed things I had ever heard. Now I can't even remember half of the tracks.

― ledge, Saturday, 9 August 2008 13:17 (4 years ago) Permalink

I only bought this a couple of years, although, of course, I grew up with the the four singles. Some of the album tracks are surprising: the Bo Diddley-beat interlude in "The Working Hour," fer instance. Still voted for "Head Over Heels" over "Everybody Wants to Rule The World." That chorus! The opening keyboards!

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 9 August 2008 13:27 (4 years ago) Permalink

Alfred posted. OMG, I'm saved. If I could just find that libcrypt, though.

Alfred, I still remember Twist of Fate, though, I do still have that. Also I'm very close downloading this Daryl Hall album...whatever that is they mentioned on the Eno thread. I've almost got all of that, now.

― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 13:42 (4 years ago) Permalink

I just relistened to it, after 20-odd years, and I'm afraid I was unimpressed. Another childhood illusion shattered. Shout and Everybody and Head over Heels are still great 80s pop songs - still get a shiver from the intro of the latter - but the rest is distinctly self-indulgent. Mothers Talk is just a bit of a mess, Broken really does sound like the work of someone with an over-inflated ego (and why the live reprise at the end of Head over Heels?), and Listen was just embarrassing.

― ledge, Saturday, 9 August 2008 14:05 (4 years ago) Permalink

Took me years to realize 'The Hurting' is a better record. I'll vote 'Head over Heels' here, if not for the cheesy library video alone.

― BlackIronPrison, Saturday, 9 August 2008 15:57 (4 years ago) Permalink

"The Hurting" is way better IMO. My pick here is "Head Over Heels", just ahead of the two more famous hits.

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 9 August 2008 16:37 (4 years ago) Permalink

I have no idea If I'm picking Head Over Heels or Shout here. I love both songs so much for very different reasons.

― HI DERE, Saturday, 9 August 2008 16:42 (4 years ago) Permalink

"Head Over Heels" and "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" are so great.

― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 9 August 2008 17:39 (4 years ago) Permalink

Head Over Heels

― Tape Store, Saturday, 9 August 2008 17:48 (4 years ago) Permalink

EWTRTW over HOH

― Eric H., Saturday, 9 August 2008 19:16 (4 years ago) Permalink

EWTRTW slightly over Shout. Both great pop songs. Head Over Heels is good, too (not as good as the Go-Go's song of the same name, but good). The rest, meh.

― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 9 August 2008 19:35 (4 years ago) Permalink

obviously yes the hurting is the better album (it's the only great album they ever made actually) but this is pretty classic in another way altogether, in the sense that 'so' was classic and lots of other 80's albums were; they were kind of challenging and HUGELY popular. anyway "head over heels" gets my vote since I was in a lip synch competition at school in sixth grade (maybe seventh?) and we did this.

― akm, Saturday, 9 August 2008 20:53 (4 years ago) Permalink

SHOUT = so very clearly an influence on ...MASSES era depeche it hurts. especially NEVER LET ME DOWN AGAIN.

― piscesx, Saturday, 9 August 2008 21:40 (4 years ago) Permalink

Everybody Wants To Rule The World never loses its magic. Ever. I don't know why.

― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 21:47 (4 years ago) Permalink

Listen

― Curt1s Stephens, Saturday, 9 August 2008 22:55 (4 years ago) Permalink

No way is this album any worse than The Hurting. They never made one remotely perfect album, and, anyway, they were made for arena synth-pop, not the miserabilist kind.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 9 August 2008 22:59 (4 years ago) Permalink

Yeah fucking Hurting. I should bloody well listen to that one again. I've got it right here on my iPod.

― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 23:23 (4 years ago) Permalink

Also fucking Curtis is right. I still don't have the Chameleons Tony Fletcher CD ripped, but never mind.

― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 9 August 2008 23:25 (4 years ago) Permalink

The Working Hour has always been a personal favorite. What a great record.

― soundofair, Sunday, 10 August 2008 00:06 (4 years ago) Permalink

This thread seem to die a little early (and I admit I got pretty off topic, but damn that Timi Yuro didn't help matters :)) so I'm gonna give it a bump to help it out a little.

― Bimble, Friday, 15 August 2008 16:51 (4 years ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― ILX System, Friday, 15 August 2008 23:01 (4 years ago) Permalink

Still voted for "Head Over Heels" over "Everybody Wants to Rule The World." That chorus! The opening keyboards!

Alfred remains my proxy in all things.

― rogermexico., Friday, 15 August 2008 23:21 (4 years ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― ILX System, Saturday, 16 August 2008 23:01 (4 years ago) Permalink

Woohooahh! Head Over Heels nearly in a landslide! I didn't see that one coming at all! Twice as much as Everybody...wow. ILMers have spoken. I love it.

― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 16 August 2008 23:04 (4 years ago) Permalink

Surprising but nice.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 18 August 2008 21:18 (4 years ago) Permalink

Now I hope "The Hurting" is next up?

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 18 August 2008 21:18 (4 years ago) Permalink

― More Goth Than Your Grandmother (Bimble), Monday, 11 May 2009 01:29 (4 years ago) Permalink

SHOUT = so very clearly an influence on ...MASSES era depeche it hurts. especially NEVER LET ME DOWN AGAIN.

yah both are produced by david bascombe. dm used him for "masses" because they loved his worok on "big chair" (i think they said as much in reissue notes)

― QE II, Monday, 11 May 2009 18:23 (4 years ago) Permalink

Which was quite pointless, as Depeche Mode had always been much better than Tears For Fears. Even when Tears For Fears were at their very best, as on "The Hurting" (which is a much better album than "Songs From The Big Chair"). Frankly, Depeche Mode might have benefited musically from continuing to have Daniel Miller as their producer on every album. They have been great afterwards too (partly except for "Songs Of Faith And Devotion" and "Music From The Masses" - their two least synthpop'y albums), but not as great as they were in the Daniel Miller era during the 80s.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 11 May 2009 22:50 (4 years ago) Permalink

― Banvil! The Story of Banvil (Tape Store), Monday, 11 May 2009 22:53 (4 years ago) Permalink

in fact 5:07 into 'mother's talk' sounds *just like* the intro to 'never let me down again'. i'm starting to realise how our man Bascombe was much more massively key to the succes of DM The American Arena Years. the drum machines on Big Chair are basically *the same ones* as on Music For The Masses.

― piscesx, Saturday, 25 September 2010 04:34 (2 years ago) Permalink

How do I know I didn't vote in this poll?
6. Broken – 0

― Mormons come out of the sky and they stand there (Abbbottt), Saturday, 25 September 2010 04:51 (2 years ago) Permalink

Between the searching and the need to work it out
I stopped believing everything will be alright

― Mormons come out of the sky and they stand there (Abbbottt), Saturday, 25 September 2010 04:54 (2 years ago) Permalink

I love the crazy fucking siren guitar, too! The whole song sounds like a really polite & clean mental breakdown.

― Mormons come out of the sky and they stand there (Abbbottt), Saturday, 25 September 2010 04:55 (2 years ago) Permalink

And in that way I see the song as an extension of their stuff on "The Hurting" moreso than any other song on this album though.

This album is fucking great BTW! I love both of them all the way through.

― Mormons come out of the sky and they stand there (Abbbottt), Saturday, 25 September 2010 04:57 (2 years ago) Permalink

Save The Robot once wrote that Donnie Darko makes Head Over Heels seem like the greatest song of the 80s.

I remember being taunted by a guy on my Little League team when I told him my sister had bought this record for me for my birthday. Can't remember what he said exactly but it was something along the lines of "faggot shit." Mind you, we were twelve...

― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, 25 September 2010 13:04 (2 years ago) Permalink

If I'd voted in this poll when it happened, I more than likely would have voted 'The Working Hour'. Listening to it right this very moment, however, 'I Believe' is really really doing it for me.

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Sunday, 16 September 2012 22:10 (9 months ago) Permalink

"The Working Hour" is a really odd track for a big-selling album, don't you think?

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 16 September 2012 22:21 (9 months ago) Permalink

It's always been a huge favourite of mine... the way it introduces itself with the saxophone and keyboards, then the programmed rhythm arrives and that big, powerful sounding piano.

You're kinda right in a way, for a big selling album this really only has three obvious singles on it: 'Shout', 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World' and 'Head Over Heels', although I think 'Head Over Heels' loses something when taken in isolation, and it's best heard as part of the 'Broken'/'Head Over Heels'/'Broken (Live)' suite on the album.

'Mothers Talk' and 'I Believe' were both released as singles, and even though I like 'Mothers Talk' (that BIG drum sound) and I *LOVE* 'I Believe', I wouldn't have had either down as contenders to be released as singles. 'Broken' and 'Listen' could never have been singles in a million years.

The best parts of 'The Working Hour' for me are the build in the intro and the sheer power of the "find out... find out..." outro, rather than the actual SONG itself. I feel that editing it down would have proved to be a bit of a headache, and it would have been necessary to do so if they were going to put it out as a single. I definitely think it would lose something if those parts were fucked with in any way!!

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Sunday, 16 September 2012 22:46 (9 months ago) Permalink

In fact, I think I remember a review of a reissue of Songs From The Big Chair which described 'The Working Hour' as "over-inflated rot"... christ, no! Every single part of that song has a purpose!

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Sunday, 16 September 2012 22:49 (9 months ago) Permalink

Agreed. Even better, I had the UK cassette which had a bunch of bonus tracks including this version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4G6XYm8hoc

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 16 September 2012 23:50 (9 months ago) Permalink

Thanks for that, I hadn't heard that version before! :D

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Monday, 17 September 2012 00:30 (9 months ago) Permalink

The part of "The Working Hour" where the band does the Bo Diddley riff/rhythm = wow.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 17 September 2012 01:03 (9 months ago) Permalink

"Working Hour" might seem an outlier, but it underscores the innate proggy-ness of a lot of this stuff. If anything, it's a much better job of prog as pop than anything Genesis did in the '80s, save perhaps bits of "Invisible Touch." ("Broken" is a total "Invisible Touch" song.) I remember reading an interview with the drummer on this, Manny Elias, and he readily admitted copping all sorts of Collins stuff.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 17 September 2012 01:34 (9 months ago) Permalink

Everybody Wants To Rule The World is one of the greatest singles of all time

― Master of Treacle, Monday, 17 September 2012 21:48 (9 months ago) Permalink

'Everybody Wants To Rule The World' is such a great single, it got to #2 in the UK chart. Then, a year later, it was re-released as 'Everybody Wants To Run The World' as a charity single and got to #5. Both versions of the song re-entered the UK chart for a second time after they'd dropped out. Of course, 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World' was also an American #1.

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Monday, 17 September 2012 22:12 (9 months ago) Permalink

During the early summer of '85 a brief window in the American charts allowed this and Paul Young's take on "Every Time You Go Away" to both hit #1; it was a flash of something ruminative and self-evaluating done at a Sirk-esque devotion to surfaces and decor.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 17 September 2012 22:20 (9 months ago) Permalink

The album itself had EXACTLY the same highest chart positions as 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World', funnily enough. #1 in the US, #2 in the UK. Both The Hurting and The Seeds Of Love made it to #1 in the UK, whereas Songs From The Big Chair didn't.

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Monday, 17 September 2012 22:31 (9 months ago) Permalink

and neither of those albums hit #1 in the States. C'est la guerre...

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 17 September 2012 22:33 (9 months ago) Permalink

It was held off the UK #1 spot by No Jacket Required, so I've just discovered. Ah well...

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Monday, 17 September 2012 22:43 (9 months ago) Permalink