Tears for Fears-Songs from the Big Chair-Nov.4 Boxset

WOW I didn't know this. How much more exciting can this Xmas get?

 

I knew there was a reason I've been putting off getting the '06 deluxe edition for the past eight years! Also, one of the few albums I'll gladly buy a fourth version of.

 

I'll add "Mothers talk" as my fourth.
The ending of this album is simply... massive. That last stroke on the (I guess) drum machine that dissolves into noise!

The box set surely looks interesting but I'm quite happy with the sound on my original US LP. However, TFF are so good live that I'd buy the set if they release some live material from that era. Live from Santa Barbara is incredible sound-wise and performance-wise but the cheap MTV-style presentation makes me sick.

 

I'm in for the superdeluxe box

 

That is Going to California, which is from 1990 on the Seeds of Love tour. It's a little confusing because the DVD release was a two-fer with Scenes From The Big Chair, but a "Big Chair" era photo was featured on the cover. A good value, and it included a lengthy interview with producer Chris Hughes, but from two distinct eras.

Now THAT is going to be an interesting box set. So much money was spent on the Seeds Of Love recording sessions as I think they threw away an entire album as they weren't happy with it and started from scratch.

But that's for later down the road hopefully. Back to Songs From The Big Chair.

 

Exactly. I mentioned this DVD since this is the only TFF live DVD. Going to California is great but there was something wrong with "Scenes from the Big Chair" and for some reason I didn't like it (if I'm not mistaken, the live performances were badly cut and edited).
It will be great if they release the full performances from this documentary but I doubt they have survived.

 

I hope it sounds better than the Blu-Ray version of "The Hurting" which i find kind of harsh and loud

 

There was a stunningly odd remix of "Mothers Talk" at the time that was a big favourite of mine. I love this album: in fact I've listened to it in the last week and it's one of a handful of albums that get first call on storage space in every device I buy. I'll be looking long and hard at the super-deluxe track listing when it comes out ... it's going to be very hard to resist.

Mind you, it's such perfect 42 minutes of music that it may simply be spoiled by too much additional material ...

 

Yep, ditto.
And i definitely wasn't impressed. I was looking forward to it for so long that i was majorly disappointed.......they did a crappy job with it for sure.........

 

Then I'm happy I left this one out.

Maybe too bright, but too loud?

 

I think we talked about this on an older thread. Unfortunately, many of TFF's concert videos have been marred by using the latest special effects of the day, which has rendered them looking very dated now. I would put the following in that category:

- In My Mind's Eye
- Going To California
- Secret World Live

Shows that don't have this trouble are:
- Scenes From the Big Chair
- Knebworth 1990 (3 songs only)
- the TV broadcast from Rockpalast in 1983 (though not an official release)

The concert footage and performance from Scenes From The Big Chair (Massey Hall) is fabulous in my opinion, and even looks like it was captured on film too. If they could take this whole show and issue it with this new Songs From The Big Chair box set on blu-ray I would be one happy customer.

 

Would be amazing if the blu-ray version contained the extra tracks as well....but that's asking a lot from a record company. I want the extra stuff but I don't play CD's...frustrating.

My LP sounds absolutely amazing though, and got it in minty shape for probably $4, since TFF aren't 'cool', I guess.

 

You're correct. I meant compressed, not loud. I ordered the original CD from discogs to compare

 

They play live again this Saturday in Oklahoma.

 

I'd like to know what will be on the DVDs. If neither contain the album in hi-rez, then I guess I will have to get the Super Deluxe Edition and the Blu-Ray disc. Of course, I recently bought the SHM-SACD and Platinum SHM-CD. Then again, this is an album for which one cannot have too many versions.

Another two-CD Deluxe Edition?

 

Funny you say that - this is one of a handful of albums circa '85-'87 that I owned on LP, cd and cassette back in the day.

 

My brother bought the LP and a bunch of vinyl singles off the album in '85. He treated them with great care and then gave them to me some years ago (with some other vinyl).

I also have several versions on CD and the SHM-SACD. More, please!

 

This is one of the very few albums I consider perfect, and from the 80s no less. I may actually look for this one.

 

I am a big big TFF fan and "Songs" is one of my favorite albums of all time, but I confess I've been scratching my head over this Super Deluxe Edition.
The 2006 Deluxe Edition covered pretty well this era, with only some scarce omissions, mostly due to incompetence (wrong tracks picked, wrong information, etc.), but they had their mind in the right place. If you added the excellent DVD release of "Scenes" (with that bizarre, but useful, addition of a concert from the "Seeds" era) to the 2006 Deluxe Edition you had your "Songs" era well covered.

So how the hell are they going to fill 4 CD's AND 2 DVD's with material?! Is there something "brand new" coming from the vaults? A new documentary, with new interviews? An unseen/unheard concert? A surround mix of the original album (and maybe some B-Sides)?
My skepticism tells me no, no, no and no, respectively.

All of the above cost money, time (which I understand is a precious value for both Mr. Orzabal and Mr. Smith) and would require an exhaustive investigation work through the master tapes, home demos, rough tracks, etc, etc. It just doesn't sound like Roland or Curt to me...

With some luck, we might get our hands on the complete "Live At Massey Hall" show (Polygram issued this in Canada and sent it to the radios, so maybe a live album was shelved at the time?), or maybe on the "Cape Fear" recording from Manchester (that would be a stretch though), but those would be only audio, obviously.

So this is how my skeptic side (who convinces me not to get excited) thinks this will work out:

CD 1: Original Album
CD 2: B-Sides & 7'' Single Mixes
CD 3: 12'' Extended Mixes & Remixes
CD 4: Live At Massey Hall
DVD 1: Scenes From The Big Chair & interview with Chris Hughes from the original DVD (they will most likely remove "Going To California" and save that for the "Seeds Of Love" Deluxe Edition)
DVD 2: Promo videos

Yes, this would be very disappointing as only CD4 would be new material (plus maybe a few tracks from CD2 and CD3), but maybe it's best not to get our hopes up.
Let's not forget they managed to botch the (otherwise excellent) "The Hurting" Deluxe Edition with (again) wrong tracks, wrong information and a giant CLICK on one track of the original album (I forgot which one was).

On the other hand, if they go the distance and pull all the stops, this is what might be in store for us:

CD 1: Original Album & B-Sides (same as 2006 Deluxe Edition, but they could replace "Broken Revisited" with "We Are Broken" (the original reverbed track), as BR was mistakenly in the place of WAB in "The Hurting" DE, early this year)
CD 2: 7'' Single Mixes & 12'' Extended Mixes (with the correct tracks this time and both the (great) US Remix and UK Remix of "Mother's Talk")
CD 3: Rarities - Alternate mixes / Roland home demos (he wrote most of the tracks, so they must exist somewhere)
CD 4: Live At Massey Hall (this time, the complete concert)
DVD 1: Scenes From The Big Chair, interview with Chris Hughes from the original DVD, new documentary with new interviews with the band & Promo Videos (in the place of "Going To California")
DVD 2: Original Album & B-Sides in 5.1 Surround Mix

I hope I shed some ideas for this Super Deluxe Edition.

 

Pretty good for an album that only had 8 tracks to begin with

 

All killer, no filler!

@Mustapha I would buy that box for your cd #4 alone! I have wanted a complete concert from this show for years - I would even settle for a 79 min highlights of the show as long as the songs themselves are unedited. It bugged me so much during Scenes when the live material was interrupted with interview snippets!

 

The Working Hour is the masterpiece for me, and then the Broken/Head Over Heels/Broken medley, on side two.

 

Does anyone know why all of the CDs released of this album have the left and right channels reversed? We're the original LP masters wrong?

 

Saw the show last night and they still sound fantastic. Roland can still hit those notes! Nice selection of old and new and the Arcade Fire cover.

Really looking forward to the box set. The Hurting box, while not perfect was still better than most bands are doing these days.

 

Did they play The Hurting? I hope they play it when they do their big tour next year in support of the new album.

The cover of Ready to Start sounds great. Here it is from your show.