Well, it wasn't available when it was RELEASED (had pre-orders cancelled), so it makes sense for it to be available now, when people don't expect it to be around.
Did anyone compare the new LP to other versions especially MFSL? Just don’t 9 pages and nothing mentioned at all…
Maybe on JPC, but I ordered from Amazon AND ImportCDs and both orders were cancelled. Just said to hell with it!
I played the Townhouse Jams yesterday and really enjoyed them. I probably said this up thread but it's like having TFF play in your living room!
Did anybody ever try combining the vocals from "Badman's Song" with the Langer/Winstanley version? I'd still like to hear that. Or do it myself.
Yeah I tried it, it's in a different key and different tempo so would have taken a while to stick together properly!
What would also be interesting: Isolating the cut verse from "Year of the Knife" (as included on the version called "The Mix") and grafting it onto the instrumental backing track, then editing it into the album cut and putting the overture in front of it... (I just listened to the Audio commentary that @80sography did with Dave Bascombe and it's a must-listen for any fan of the album.)
A couple of months later and still in stock at Amazon at $70. A decent price (unlike, say, The Band’s reissues with unnecessary vinyl or CDs or Blu-Ray for those who don’t want an all inclusive format package). I’m not surprised-it wasn’t anywhere the seller of Songs from The Big Chair even though I think it is a better album overall (that’s not to diminish Songs as it IS a classic and great album) due to its ambition.
What are your favorite tracks from this album? I’ve heard “Sowing The Seeds Of Love” a lot growing up but not nearly as much these days. I liked its Beatlesque sound and its never-ending chorus; it’s good but not quite on the level of the previous two albums. Then I picked up a compilation and discovered “Woman In Chains” and “Advice For The Young At Heart.” The latter is my favorite the singles, but what are the album tracks that stand out to you?
The singles and songs from various hits collections are obviously great, the title track being one of the best recordings of the band's career, but the album cuts are tremendous on this album, from Badman's Song, to Swords And Knives, to Year of The Knife. A truly great album.
No, it is not on the level of the previous two albums. It is my album of the decade, nothing less. Which the others are obviously not. Which songs stand out? 1 Woman In Chains 2 Badman's Song 3 Sowing The Seeds Of Love 4 Advice For The Young At Heart 5 Standing On The Corner Of The Third World 6 Swords And Knives 7 Year Of The Knife 8 Famous Last Words Honestly, I love them all so much, as each song is different and ... amazing. Take Woman In Chains: powerful, great song, great performance. Badman, what a vocal track! What a joy. Sowing is probably the one song I tend to skip, it was too omnipresent on the radio. Advice, what a melody. Standing has a great buildup, I love the opulent sound. Swords is so quiet and yet sooo epic, great piano, great guitar. Year has got a lot of drive and some great production details. Great bass, echo play. Famous ... so quiet and tender, great buildup, even if it is only temporary until ... it ends ...
Love “Advice…” and the video equally is great. This should have been the lead single. It feels more like Tears For Fears than “Sowing” to me. For those who were around, how did this album strike you upon release? 4 year hiatus was an eternity back in that age, but it shows that the fanbase was happy to have them back. A top 10 album in the US and 2 top 40’s is respectable.
I think they needed "Sowing" for the first single to announce that they were back and "Advice" is too soft for that. TSOL became an immediate favorite for me working at Tower Video and I could think of few bands in the 80s who showed such growth over three lps. To go from the bleak teen angst of "Mad World" to "Seeds of Love" -- the greatest Beatles homage ever created in song imho -- is quite mature and evolutionary. That was a great spring and summer when TSOL burst out. I paid attention to "Advice" being 23 and thinking about the future. It was the end of the synth 80s and a nice shift into the jazzier 90's. Good times.
I was a TFF fan since the start, and Songs From The Big Chair is still in my personal all time top-10. Sowing The Seeds Of Love was so different from what came before, that I didn’t recognise it as a TFF single at first. I really had to get used to it, and it took me a while to hear how great it was. This didn’t refrain me from buying the album, and I was immediately blown away by Woman In Chains and Bad Man’s Song. Incredible what they composed here, and Oleta’s singing was just majestic. To me, Advice For The Young At Heart is the lowpoint of the album. I always thought of it as kind of cheesy, both in lyrics and in melody. IMHO it doesn’t fit in with the rest of the tracks. I’m also not a fan of Standing On The Corner, but after those songs the greatness returns with Swords And Knives and Year Of The Knife. Especially that last track is epic again, with the breakdown in the middle and the song rebuild starting with that awesome (and awesomely recorded) bass line. Famous Last Words is a fine album closer. As an album, Sowing The Seeds is so different from what they did before that it’s very hard to compare. I love every album they made, but the first 3 are all really special. Each in their own way.
Christmas 1987 I got my first radio & cassette recorder where I could select any station I wanted to hear all by myself. So I knew the hits from when friends brought them to school or they were played at other occasions. I knew I liked them. A lot, especially Shout. That was awesome. Then came Sowing The Seeds Of Love. That was ... I do not remember if I noticed how much it owes to The Beatles, even though I was already listening to The Beatles at libraries. I often biked to town just to sit at the library and listen to them, as I had hardly any chance to listen at home before that christmas that changed everything. I loved Sowing so much I swaped the cassette album from someone or bought it, I do not remember. But I did listen to it endlessly, with always changing favourites. It was a fascinating album. Before that I listened a lot to McCartney's Press To Play cassette, which has got those mixing sketches in the booklet. So I sat doen, preferably with headphones and tried to find what I was seeing/hearing. A lot did not make sense to me. Gated Voc? Ok, voc was vocals, but why put them behind a gate? Does not make sense. Or Synth bass, I knew bass, I knew synth, but both together? But I learned listening to details that way. And then came Seeds. Which had a lot of details. Which had a lot of music I did not really understand, but loved. I tried tonmake sense of the credits but failed, whybso many outsidevmusicians? Phil Collins I knew, he was also on Press To Play. But John Hassell, Manu Katche ... why would they let so many other people play on their record? And why such unknowns? Theybwere not in the charts at the time, obviously ... McCartney ok, he needed musicians, he was alone now and how would he record an album all by himself? Ok McCartney, but that sounded rough and not good, even though it had some songs I liked. So I listened and listened, learned and learned. And as I discovered different music shows on the radio I discovered more and more that those people were no unknowns. And I listened and listened and Seeds was on almost daily for a very long time. With or without headphones. In stereo or on an old mono cassette player at a time when that radio recorder had broken down. I do not miss cassettes at all, but that cassette I will not throw away. This album was extremelybimportant, and I could listen again, again and again and discover new beautiful details, sound effects I could not yet name and it was simply a great, great album. I do not remember when I got the CD, bht as I got my first CD player in 1992/1993 I guess that was around that time. I was happy about the CD booklet. Much better to handle and read than the cassette's one and LP ... too large to be read comfortably. And I loved the book form and size of CD booklets. Still do. Love the format of the TFF SDEs. Later came Nirvana and blew everything away. But they did not make my album of the 90s, that was Hedningarna's Trä. And after I named that my representative album of the 90s I wondered what had such an impact on me for the 80s, and Falco 3, McCartney's Press To Play would have been contenders, but Seeds easily made it to the top.
And Seeds is so huge for me, both previous albums pale in comparison and I had so severe difficulties getting into them, I decided the SDEs were not worth it for me the first time around. But Seeds one would definitely be, should it ever arrive. Well, I later regretted that decision once I found those are good albums, too. And I am glad they did a second batch before the Seeds SDE.
Title track is the best thing they have done - love it and never tire of hearing it. Not so keen on the rest of the album, found it mixed, but the session recordings on the boxset are excellent.
I'm still in love with the extra material from this box and also have tons of ideas of what to do with it and how to mix the different tracks. I can now say that this box set made Seeds my favourite TFF album.
