Tears for Fears Album: “Scenes From the Big Chair”

First off, the sound quality to this remastered version of the album is magnificent ... In fact, I also own the Original Master Recording gold CD, and the sound/volume is notably louder and clearer on this reissue than on the gold! It's still nice to own both versions though, because the gold CD features bonus extended mixes of "Shout" and "EWTRTW" (Which includes a fantastic extended guitar solo in the middle of the track), which the reissue doesn't have.

I wasn't too fond of most of the bonus tracks on the reissue ... They sounded more like a hodgepodge of sound effects to me, rather than music. It's too bad that, in the space of those recordings, the extended mixes from the gold CD weren't used instead. I did enjoy the mixes of "Shout" and "Mothers Talk," though ... The slowed-down vocal in the middle of both remixes of "Shout" is hilarious, but I have no idea what he is saying! :) I could take or leave "Broken Revisited" ... The slowed-down, backwards vocal in the beginning freaked me out!

"EWTRTW" and "HOH/Broken (Live)" were two of my favorites, because they sounded the most upbeat to me. The beautiful yet eerie "Listen" was the true highlight for me, because it sounded like the most experimental and surreal track on the album. I love how the synthesisers emerge from the crowd cheering, from the previous track, plus there are loads of amusing sound effects throughout the recording. The song also overflows with beautiful keyboard sounds and the guitars really rock, too! "Listen" is a creative explosion, and reminds me of something from "The Moody Blues" ... My brother thought it sounded like "Enya," too! :)

In my book, the factor of brilliant sound quality outweighs the factor of bonus tracks that I'm not crazy about, when it comes to this re-release. As for the original album, I wouldn't change a thing ... It's a perfect ten by me! :)

*There is one interesting tidbid that I wanted to add ... On the gold CD, near the end of "Head Over Heals," there are two extra bars of the chorus chanting, before the final lyrics, but I'm not sure if this was material that was edited down for the reissue or looped just for the gold CD release! :)

A while back I picked up "20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection" release issued by Universal Records in 2000. According to the liner notes, the songs have been remastered. I never really thought they sounded that great for remastering. I bought the remastered and reissued "Songs From The Big Chair" (which was actually issued in 1999) album a few weeks back and was blown away by the difference in sound quality. I really don't think the "20th Century Masters" collection was really remastered. Some tracks are quite dull. I've compared "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" and "Head Over Heels" on both discs and the versions on "Songs From The Big Chair" are much more crisp and clear. I have gained a whole new appreciation for these songs, among the many others featured on this disc. So thumbs up to Universal for at least offering this better, remastered version. For those who say this reissue isn't worth it, take a listen to the difference in sound quality. Then again, if sound quality isn't that important to you, then stick with your original copy.

Vincent Marino is right. The 1999 remaster sounds brighter than this 2006 remaster. One would think it would be the other way around, right? Not in this case. While the sound quality isn't necessarily bad it simply isn't that good in comparison to the 1999 remaster and the 2003 3-CD 'The Ultimate Collection' release (which was 32-bit mastered). The release claims to use the "original master tapes". Such could very well be the case, but the audio sounds quite flat. It doesn't have the depth heard in those previous masters. I suppose this is the result of the mastering engineer - Gary Moore @ Universal Mastering, London. Universal should have given this release to those wonderful folks at Studio Jules Hilversum, Netherlands (2003 'Ultimate Collection) or Jon Astley and Chris Hughes ('99 remaster).

The remastering isn't my only complaint, however. The tracklisting had the opportunity to be so much better. Like other 'Deluxe Edition' compilations this one is missing several rare gems. Where is the original UK 12" version of "Shout"? Again, we get the same old U.S. Remix, which can be found on numerous compilations. Where's the 12" version of "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"? We do, however, get the "Urban Remix" of this track. Where's "Everybody Wants To RUN The World"? It would have fit nicely on this release. There's room for these tracks!

On a positive note, we do get 7" versions of "Shout" and "Head Over Heels." The 7" version of "Shout" is simply the UK 7" edit, which clocks in at 4:43 but is incorrectly labeled as 4:03 on the back sleeve (which happens to be the playing time of the US 7" edit, not present here). The 7" version of "Head Over Heels" gives the listener to hear the track by itself, not combined with "Broken (Live)" on the album. I can't tell the difference between the 7" version of "Rule The World" and the album version. I'm not sure why it was included. It should have been replaced with the 12" version! "The Way You Are (7" version)" should have been placed at the end of disc one, making room for these missing mixes and tracks on disc two.

The only thing that merits a 4-star rating for this release is the packaging and booklet. I'm very pleased with the photos and overall glossy look of this 'Deluxe Edition'. The liner notes are a plus as well. The tracklisting on the back sleeve, however, is quite sloppy with incorrect playing times and some tracks without any listed times! Overall, it's still nicely presented.

I would have probably given this release a 4-star rating if the sound quality was excellent. At least I could have enjoyed the "rarities" on disc 2 more, but now Universal has left me wanting more from the recordings. I guess I'll have to go back to my 1999 remaster and 2003 'Ultimate Collection' release to hear some of these Tears For Fears gems in better quality. Perhaps a 30th anniversary release will be bring us more?

This has always been and probably will always be one of my favourite all-time albums. Tracks like "Everybody Wants To Rule the World" and "Head Over Heels" will also be among my all-time favourite songs. However, overall, this album still falls short when compared with their brilliant debut "The Hurting". TFF goes blatantly commercial here and succeeds overwhelmingly with this album becoming their best-selling ever. This version, though remastered does not sound as good a job as with what they did on "The Hurting" as well. The sound is still pretty muddy here and I hope they do a better remastering job soon with just the original 8 tracks and in an mlps format. The additional 7 bonus tracks here are quite horrible and perhaps with the exception of the last two tracks are just so obviously fillers with no artistic or creative merit whatsoever. As Economics 101 teaches us, more is better than less, however that's not the case here as the bonus tracks are so bad that they actually take away from the overall enjoyment of the album. My advice would be to wait for a better remastered album without these bonus tracks to be released.

If you like this band, this is the release that will most familiar to most as it was its best selling sophomore release as well as one of 1983's best sellers period. It was remastered in 2001 with additional cuts as well as US mixes of 2 hit singles, the massive hit Shout as well as the lesser ranking Mothers Talk.

This is a hard review as the original release was perfect so who could argue with a decent remastering job? Especially is you are replacing a cassette or a CD purchased in the 1980a that has probably seen better days. So if either of the above apply, I would do it without a doubt. If you are not interested in their individual releases, and want their greatest hits you should stick to Shout: The Very Best Of Tears For Fears, which was also released in 2001

My main (yet workable) qualm with this remastered release is the that it highlights that it has bonus tracks (which hard-core fans usually year for in principle), and with the exception of being able to hear the differences between the album versus US single cuts of Shout and Mothers talk, all the other bonus cuts make it clear that they should have remained in the vaults.

I wish that had included some worthy B-sides, dance/extended remixes, as they did in ther brilliant rerelease of The Hurting, instead of what sound like working sessions/dubs of the main body of the release. The liner notes highlight that some did not think that the release, which only had 8 cuts did not constitute a full album and that those dissenters would be pleased to know that this release now had double the number of cuts.

My response to those comments are as follows:

To the critics: 8 great cuts beat some of the navel gazing artists who max. out a CDs running time just to give the impession that more means better, or even wrose put out 2 CD releases without any merit.

To the writer of the liner notes and team behind this release. First, 15 cuts is less than 16 so while nit picking the number of cuts has not been doubled. The real problem, as highlighted above is that cuts 9-13 are true fillers.

Final thoughts: I purchased this CD and made my own 5 star mix by recording the 8 original cuts (now remastered) and added cuts 14 and 15. The extraction of cuts 9-13 is essential unless you want to keep pressing for next song.

I am a huge TFT fan and would recommend that any fan buy this collection, as long as they are not doing so due to the belief (those marketing knuckle heads) that they will be getting some unreleased gems. If money is tight and you already have the original CD, stick with that and save your money to consider purchashing their Ultimate Collection 3 CD release (2 CDs plus ! Bonus), which covers all their best, including great songs released when the group's popularity went down. It's not cheap but it has almost all the songs that any true fan would want. Not all, but pretty darn close.

Thanks again to all of you for keeping this forum relevant and for your kind notes. Since you've helped me so much in discovering new artists or staying away from products that I might have otherwise bought.