Tears for Fears: C or D?

lol

Christ almighty, they spent 10 months working on the record (The Seeds Of Love) with Chris Hughes and then junked the whole lot before starting afresh? Assuming those tapes haven't gone missing/been overwritten/been erased, just imagine the amount of alternate takes and versions there must be of these tracks!?

Over two weeks spent editing various takes for the drums together for 'Badman's Song'!? Talk about meticulous.

The Seeds of Love is Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden beholden to boomer notions of love, peace, and jammin'.

With a bit of Skylarking thrown in, too.

Over two weeks spent editing various takes for the drums together for 'Badman's Song'!? Talk about meticulous.

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Tuesday, November 27, 2012 7:45 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the hilarious thing is that was AFTER they decided to 'simplify' and get away from overly programmed music!

Yeah, it's like they couldn't completely shake off their perfectionist tendencies. Which is completely fine with me, I guess, because the end result sounds great. Those editing sessions must have been really fucking tedious to get through, though!

Eh, this was just them indulging their inner Peter Gabriel (not a coincidence both Phil Collins and Manu Katche play drums on the record). Tears For Fears was always a prog band at heart, bless 'em.

Well, none of the tracks sound Gabrielicious.

No, but they are fussy.

It's interesting that the linked article mentions The Blue Nile, because I was given both "Hats" and "The seeds of love" for Xmas 89 and even then it seemed like different sides of the same studio perfectionist streak - both had been long anticipated albums, but one seemed 'bigger' than the other. I love "Badman's song" the most, tbh. There's so much going on and considering the work that went into it, it does sound almost spontaneous. What's with that lone reverbed handclap during the piano breakdown halfway through the song?

Yeah, I completely agree - even though the album has been pored over and pieced together meticulously, it still ends up sounding more organic and less 'rigid' than Songs From The Big Chair. I think if there's any track on Songs From The Big Chair that points the way to The Seeds Of Love, it's probably 'I Believe'.

I need to check this album out after all this talk. Love the couple songs I know from it, but never heard the rest.

Elemental is patchy, but "Cold" and "Fish Out of Water"... I have a lot of time for those songs. And of course "Break It Down Again." I saw them live a couple years back and was very surprised to hear them play that last one. I figured it was one of those songs they would forget happened - made in Curt's absence, not a big hit comparatively.

Just as an aside, I love how Curt Smith issued a solo album under the name of "Mayfield" because ... er ... Curt Is Mayfield!

it being their last real hit of any consequence counts for a lot, i think. it's aged well, too!

xpost lol that never occurred to me. i thought Mayfield was a group, though?

There's at least two references on "Seeds" to "Big Chair" - Curt sings "Working Hour is over" on "Advice" and Roland sings "...if you're a worried man, shout about it" on the title track. Are there any others?

just a couple beatles geeks trying to look through a glass onion

yeah Orzabal-Smith sound like they heard and loved only two Beatles songs: that one and "I Am the Walrus."

I love it how the lyric "the sun and the moon, the wind and the rain" keeps popping up every so often throughout the album. It's on 'Woman In Chains', 'Year Of The Knife' and 'Famous Last Words'... it's definitely intentional.

Faith can move mountains, BUT MIND OVER MATTER WON'T STOP ALL YOUR CHATTER, NO!!!

Regarding Everyone Loves A Happy Ending, 'Call Me Mellow' is like the best song that Andy Partridge never wrote and included on a late '80s/early '90s XTC album!

Exactly. It's such an up, joyous album, kind of a full-circle from "The Hurting". It's nice they (and I) grew up and out of miserablism.

I agree. They wouldn't have been being true to themselves if they'd made a miserable, downer album in the same style as their first one... not to mention it could have sounded completely ridiculous if they'd taken that approach!

The Seeds Of Love seriously doing it for me right now... again!

I finally checked out The Seeds of Love... wow. Granted I knew 3 of the 8 tracks, but I adore the album's use of texture, especially in the quieter tracks. Moody, downbeat, yet somehow colorful. It's fussy exactly in the way I like fussy. The only track that threw me was "Badman's Song", which is a real curveball, but I plan on sinking into this album some more. Reminds me a lot of the path Talk Talk took.

ctrl+f "Talk Talk"
Yeah looks like Alfred had the same thought as me. Oh also, the guitar tone they use on "Year of the Knife" is magical.

Nice one, Vinnie... it really opens itself up with repeated plays on headphones, too... there's a lot of detail in there!

I was just listening on Spotify over crappy laptop speakers, but even from there, I could tell there's a lot of detail baked into this album. Plan to make my next listen on headphones.

"The Working Hour" is made for car boomin' systems.

SftBC is such an awesome sounding record.

There's a forthcoming 4cd box set for The Hurting coming soon!

Way too much Hurting for me.

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/tears-for-fears-the-hurting-four-disc-box-set-exclusive-details/

The Hurting has a few good tunes (I don't see "Watch Me Bleed" praised much) but no way in hell is it better than SFTBC or TSOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL_N1dVtddM

holy hell

this is demented

Isn't it.

I actually like the covers they've been doing. Quietly gearing up for something in a way that makes me eager to see what they come up with next. The covers & the Tumblr are a perfectly executed strategy.

10 years between albums, I'm expecting something akin the XTC 's "Apple Venus", IE a great album after so much time off.

"My Girls" seems slightly pointless.

Lyrics still no less obnoxious, but at least the sound of this cover doesn't make me feel queasy.

10 years between albums, I'm expecting something akin the XTC 's "Apple Venus", IE a great album after so much time off.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, December 17, 2013 8:11 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd be happy with something with the production depth of The Seeds Of Love, myself!

"The Working Hour" is made for car boomin' systems.

The 80s had big overdone sax in so many pop songs, and it just overwhelmed everything with its heavy slick sleazy stripper-pole sound so often. But this song has a sax intro that is kind of dated, but the saxaphone in it is strong and expressive in a way more like the clarinet in Joni Mitchell's For Free.

I fucking love this song.

Can't think of a better example of big overdone 80s sax myself.

"Woman in Chains" is so pretty.

'Advice For The Young At Heart' is perfection to me... the song, the production, the vocal...

i have this weird thing where lots of songs vaguely remind me of "Advice" and i tend to feel instant affection for them just because of that (examples: Wye Oak's "We Were Wealth," India Arie's "Just Do You").

"Advice..." is their sophisti-pop song (those bongos remind me of "Shattered Dreams") so Curt Smith singing it makes sense.

do we have a dedicated sophistipop thread or anything?