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

Probably this:
Album list - Dynamic Range Database »

 

JulesRules is correct. Enjoy Fleetwood Mac also but to me, both releases have that same blaring sound. As result, Say You Will doesn't get many listens either.

 

In a few years, lots of albums will have to get a second look.

 

Everybody Loves A Happy Ending is deserving of high priority .
The rest of TFF catalog (except for The Hurting sounding a little thin) already sounds pretty good.

 

Along with Clockwork Angels and La Futura... sorry getting offtopic again. Probably because of your username

 

That album is a bit brash, bright and loud in parts, I think due to the new-millennium sound while still trying to pay homage to The Beatles. It's sad that they never followed it up with another LP. Good album, though.

 

It looks like this statement will be obsolete in a few months, as the band are definitely working on a new album.

 

You are not able to redownload albums you have purchased on Pono. You only get to download each track successfully once and track 2 would just get an error when I tried to download it. I contacted Pono support multiple times over the course of two months and each time they said the error was on their end and that they would try to fix it. They asked me to retry downloading that song multiple times but eventually they just decided to give me a refund, which I never received.

 

That's quite unprofessional. If they expect to go head to head with other services, they'll need to get that together.

 

Does anyone know when the download card in the blu-ray version expires? I'm considering just rebuying the damn thing at this point for that one song.

 

I'm really hoping they haven't lost all their momentum. I gave them another listen today. Truly fantastic musicians. New music and tour, please! With dates in Frankfurt.

 

And Stuttgart.

Thinking about it, I think people here in Germany have pretty much forgotten about the band, no? Whereas in Hong Kong, or Manila, or many South American countries, they play to enormous crowds.

 

It's hard to say. I still find their stuff in the record shops here, but they didn't make the same mark on Germany that say Duran Duran did. They could easily sell out the Jahrhunderthalle, though, I think.

 

I guess I would travel to Frankfurt if they only played there. I'll need to go to Wiesbaden to see David Gilmour, so there. And don't mention the word "selling out" to me... trying to get tickets for Gilmour in Stuttgart was a terrible experience. It's officially 'sold out' but many of the tickets are available via ripoff resellers at insane prices. Sorry...getting offtopic again.

If you read the eclipsed or GoodTimes magazines, you might have noticed a reader's letter or two from me...

And re: record shops - the reason why I started using Amazon was because the Hurting box set was not available either from Müller nor from MediaMarkt, the two nearest CD vendors in my vicinity (i.e. neither could order the set), which says a bit I think.

 

The show I'm dying to see is Joe Jackson, but that show is sold out and I haven't found any affordable tickets from re-sellers. And Wiesbaden isn't sooo far from Stuttgart.

Hmm, I think I've seen The Hurting at Saturn, but that may have been at the flagship store in Hamburg and not in Frankfurt. Both Saturn and MediaMarkt are so spotty. Some locations are paradise and others have the most paltry CD selection I've ever seen.

 

The point is, I hold Stephen Marcussen solely responsible for this mess. He ruined other albums as well and is on record as saying that he doesn't get why people object to the loudness war. The four ELAHE tracks that were included on the "Gold" double CD show that the mixes weren't crushed to death and that with a proper re-mastering it could sound amazing.

 

I need to pick that one up... Gold that is. Sounds encouraging!

 

Yeah, the album is a bit difficult to sit through for the overblown mixing. It's the only TFF album that needs correcting.

 

I'm trying to use my twitter account to remind the guys of this (but even more to make them hopefully avoid the loudness war on the new album).

Don't expect too much - the first disc is mainly 1:1 transfers of the Astley remasters and the ELAHE tracks are still no sonic wonders (see the DR values). But I personally find them less fatiguing and also more natural-sounding. They still have a slightly harsh sound - perhaps the mixes actually aren't perfect? It seems a bit like they've tried to push everything upfront.

 

I just downloaded the 24/96 version of this album (with the 2014 remix included) at Pro Studio Masters.

I always liked this cd, but the hi-res really does sound great! Fantastic remastering of a fantastic album! The few db imbalance between channels is noticeable, but an easy fix on my amp (or in a DAW if you are so inclined).

Now on to the remix...
Like several other remixes of classic albums I've heard, I don't get it. "Shout" sounds so disjointed. There is no power to the song anymore until the real drums kick in long after it gets started. The electronic drum loop has been relegated to a background sound, and there is an electronic tom that I never even noticed before that seems way too loud in the loop now.
Maybe I would like this remix more if I had never heard the album before, but it definitely doesn't hit me the same way that the original mix does. I mean, it sounds EXTREMELY 80s anyway. Does stripping the reverb change that and make it sound like a modern record? Nope. Not at all. Now it sounds like an 80s pop album with less reverb, which really changes the balance of where things sit in the mix.

Pearl Jam tried doing this with "Ten," which seemed like an amazing idea to me. The stadium reverb never suited the album or the band, or so I thought... Then I heard the 2010 remix and immediately wanted to go back to the comfy, soaked in reverb "outdated" CD.

 

Pretty much my opinion. In some places it now sounds like a 70s album with a drum machine, which is a very odd combination. The only track which I think has benefitted is "Listen", and a couple of others (EWTRTW & HOH) are roughly as good as the original mix. But the others are just too different, and not in a good way IMO. Roland's involvement or Curt's praise doesn't help much - we know they haven't listened to the original album in years.

 

I like reverb!

 

Me too! Unless it's too much, á la the wrong "Mothers Talk (US Remix)" version...

 

I finally picked up this box set, and I'm glad I did. I still haven't listened to or watched the DVDs yet, but I made it through the four audio CDs a few times.

Through my system and my ears, this is the best mastering of the original album I've heard. I haven't heard all of the different masterings, but I've heard the two most talked about ones: the "target" CD and the MFSL. The second best mastering, IMO, is the target CD, and the third is the MFSL. None of what I'm hearing comes down to a better or worse tape. It's really all about the EQ choices.

This new 2014 master is not brickwalled on disc 1. There are a handful of tracks that are hard limited on the other discs, but it's nothing obnoxious (and I haven't checked them all visually--only some). Again, the reason I like the mastering of the original album the best here is because of the EQ choices. There is better bottom end compared to the target CD, which is a little thin. The bass is probably similar to the MFSL CD. The mids and highs, though, are similar to the target CD, which I think sounds great in those frequency ranges. The reason the MFSL is third on my list is because of a midrange boost that I don't particularly care for. It's especially noticeable when doing an A/B between the MFSL and 2014 discs. That said, the differences are subtle and may be a matter of personal taste.

The biggest weakness in the mastering of discs 2, 3 & 4 is the vinyl transfers. It's stated in the booklet which tracks are taken from vinyl, and it's very obvious by listening. There is a noisy hum on both "The Way You Are" (short version) and "Shout" (US single version), and both of those tracks run too slow. Even worse, though, is that the stylus/cartridge used sounds very fuzzy and worse than most vinyl transfers I've heard on major releases (in general). It's also puzzling why they wouldn't have just used one of the many existing CD sources for "Shout," since the US edit is readily available on several compilations.

The other thing that stood out is the source/transfer of "Head Over Heels" for the Radio Version and Remix. I can't say for sure what went wrong, but perhaps the tape was not tracking properly. On the Radio Version (disc 2), the left channel has almost no high frequencies at all. It's the kind of sound you hear when you turn on Dolby C on a cassette tape that has not been recorded with Dolby. It sounds like noise reduction but not digital noise reduction. That's the best way I can describe it. The Remix (aka 7" mix) has it, too, but not as bad. The best source I have for the 7" Remix is on the Very Best Of (red cover, 2001). It's a clean transfer/source on that disc.

On Disc 4, a couple of the Massey Hall tracks were taken from vinyl and have the same fuzzy sound quality as the two previously mentioned tracks. What's confusing, though, is why they would choose to do vinyl transfers when they had the multitrack recording from that show (but not the 2-track stereo master mixdowns). It says in the booklet that the multis were used for the previously unreleased Massey Hall tracks, so surely the ones taken from vinyl would be on the multis, too, no? My only thought was that they either wanted to stay faithful to the originals on the vinyl or didn't want to dedicate the time to mixing those songs from the multitrack tapes.

Overall, this is a great release. It's very thorough and sounds really nice on most of the additional tracks. The original album, as I said, sounds the best I've heard it sound.

 

Good review. I haven't compared the 7" remix of Head over Heels to the 2006 deluxe, so I'll listen for what you are describing. The only vinyl transfer that really bugs me is the Broken/Head over Heels medley which just sounds plain bad. And while we're at it, "The Hurting" (on the Scenes DVD) would have fit on the CD as well. A few comments from Paul here: Tears For Fears / MASSIVE “Songs From The Big Chair” box set coming | superdeluxeedition »